Hospice Palliative Care
Hospice palliative care is an interdisciplinary, holistic, and specialized approach to care aimed at optimizing quality of life through relieving pain and other symptoms, offering comfort and supports, for adults and children living with a life-limiting illness, as well as their families (a family is whoever the person choses to identify as such as relatives, partners and friends). Hospice palliative care addresses physical, psychosocial, spiritual, cultural and practical issues, and their associated expectations / concerns on an individual, patient and family centred basis.
We provide the following services to meet your goals of care:
In-Home Supports / Visiting Hospice Services
Our in-home hospice programs offer professional and volunteer psychosocial supports for clients and caregivers, which is integrated into the professional health team in the client’s home. Centred on the expressed needs of the individual and their loved ones, we incorporate the compassion and skills of a diverse group of staff and volunteers into assisting with the management of day-to-day activities. To ensure accessibility to all communities and services, we work within a team-based, multi-disciplinary model in cooperation with other healthcare professionals and support agencies.
Staff and volunteers are trained in the provision of hospice care for adults, children and families, and are committed to respecting confidentiality and individual beliefs, choices, gender, faith, culture and ethnicities.
Volunteer Program
All our volunteers are carefully recruited, and comprehensively screened, trained, and supervised in the provision of non-medical hospice palliative care. Clients of all ages may receive volunteer support, which includes:
- Practical, Psychosocial, Emotional and Spiritual Care
- Grief and Bereavement Support
- Assistance with Activities of Daily Living (light chores, meal preparation, etc.)
- Accompaniment to medical appointments or running errands (grocery shopping etc.)
- Respite care for primary caregivers
Music Therapy
Music therapy can improve a person’s quality of life by addressing emotional, spiritual and physical needs and assisting with pain management. Music therapy can help decrease feelings of isolation and loneliness, reduce the perception of physical pain, facilitate relaxation or provide motivation for physical activation. In addition, it encourages family participation and is a means for exploring difficult issues and painful realities without words. Our music therapist can assist you and your family in the creation of legacy through personalized songs or poems written together or by you.
Grief and Bereavement
Our Grief and Bereavement Counsellors understand that grief is a vital and necessary response to loss, and they will accompany you on your journey. Individual and group grief supports are available to clients of all ages and their families who are anticipating or have experienced the death of a loved one.
Spiritual Care
Our professional Spiritual Care Practitioner can help clients and families address physical, emotional, social, and spiritual pain. They confidentially explore what is most important to your well-being, whether it be by supporting a faith tradition or through another form of spirituality. They can also help connect you with communities that honour your traditional culture and practices and assist you with planning funerals / celebrations of life. This program may also utilize specially trained volunteers.
Social Worker Support
Our Social Worker provides family and individual counselling and education on resources and support systems available to them, and assistance in accessing these services both within and outside our organization. They will help you and your family: navigate planning for end-of-life care; understand your goals of care and treatment; and, assess and advocate for your practical and psychosocial needs as they arise.
Caregiver Support and Training
We offer resources, training and support to primary caregivers and informal caregivers such as family and friends who desire to be part of the care team for their loved one.
Emily’s House and Emily’s House At-Home (Children’s Programming)
Specially trained staff and volunteers are equipped to support children and their families whose lives are impacted by a life-limiting illness. We provide paediatric hospice palliative care in two settings: in-home or in our 10-bed residence, Emily’s House. Children’s programs in either setting allow a break for parents, and a safe place for children to play, learn, grow and explore their feelings, fears and hopes while supporting the family in maintaining a sense of normal routine. This program also offers opportunities to participate in after school programs and summer recreation.
For more on Emily’s House, click here.
For more on Emily’s House at Home, click here.
How to Access Hospice Care
Hospice services are provided free of charge. Referrals are accepted from Home and Community Care Support Services (formerly Community Care Access Centers /CCAC’LIHN), health care professionals and hospitals, community support agencies, family members, friends or the person living with the life-limiting illness.
In response to a request for hospice care, our Client Care Coordinator will connect you to arrange a visit to conduct an admissions assessment. Appropriate hospice supports and a personalized care plan will be developed if admission criteria is met.
For more information please contact our Client Services Department at 416.363.9196, or email [email protected]
To receive support at Emily’s House Children’s Hospice, click here for next steps.
With more than 25 years of service, you can trust Philip Aziz Centre to care for you.