Palliative Care Tag

05 Jul 2021 Respectfully Submitted Palliative Care Policy Report: Executive Summary

Executive Summary Palliative care is holistic, person-centered care for people facing life-limiting illnesses or disabilities. Palliative care neither hastens death nor unnaturally prolongs life. Instead, it focuses on giving patients their best possible quality of life despite illness or disability. The Canadian Institute for Health Information estimates that up to 89% of Canadians could have benefitted from palliative care prior to death – almost everyone whose death was not sudden or unexpected. Despite this great need for palliative care, only 30% of Canadians who need it have access to palliative care, and...

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16 Jun 2021 New Respectfully Submitted Palliative Care Policy Report

ARPA Canada's newest Respectfully Submitted Palliative Care Report has just been released! You can read the text of the report below or view, download, and/or print a pdf of the policy report here.   When a medical team seems to have exhausted all treatment options and a terminal diagnosis is given, a physician will too often tell a patient, “I’m sorry, there is nothing more we can do for you.” The doctor then refers the patient to hospice or palliative care, which the patient enters with the mindset that nothing can or...

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euthanasia

13 Dec 2019 Euthanasia: Permitted not Mandated

Recent news articles have recounted the fight between Fraser Health and the Irene Thomas Hospice in Delta, BC. Already back in 2016, Fraser Health – the local health authority responsible for serving 1.8 million British Columbians in the Lower Mainland – dictated that all hospices must provide euthanasia. After an outcry by citizens and hospices, Fraser Health softened its directive by allowing faith-based hospices to continue to live out their mission of neither hastening death nor intentionally ending life. Fraser Health still required non-denominational hospices to provide euthanasia. The Irene Thomas Hospice,...

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10 Jul 2019 Merging palliative care and MAiD

Increasing pressure on palliative care providers to offer assisted suicide and euthanasia At a recent conference hosted by the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers (CAMAP), three doctors presented on how euthanasia could be pushed into palliative care spaces. Evidently, some palliative care physicians and nurses believe that “Medical Assistance in Dying” or “MAiD”* is a natural part of palliative care. But many are strongly opposed to the encroachment of MAiD into palliative care wards and facilities. In May 2019, the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians clarified in a statement...

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31 Jan 2019 A timeline of ARPA Canada’s engagement on the euthanasia issue

Euthanasia has been a top priority issue for ARPA Canada over the past few years. 2015: ARPA intervened in Carter v. Canada, the landmark Supreme Court case which struck down the prohibition on assisted suicide. 2015: ARPA produced a paper showing the government that their legislative options included affirming a total ban of euthanasia. 2015: ARPA  engaged in direct lobbying on Bill C-14, which amended the Criminal Code to legalize physician-assisted suicide.  The Hill Times recorded ARPA Canada as having the top number of Parliamentary lobby meetings on this...

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28 Jan 2019 CCA report leaves Parliament with many warnings about expanding euthanasia

In December 2018, the Council of Canadian Academies completed a massive report on assisted suicide, and its possible expansion in Canada. Requested by the Ministers of Justice and Health and tabled in Parliament, this report was written “in order to inform a national dialogue among the Canadian public, and between the public and decision makers.” It’s helpful to define terms used in this article. The CCA reports makes consistent reference to “MAID”, which stands for “Medical Assistance in Dying”. We strongly object to this euphemistic term, since it intentionally...

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18 Jan 2019 Where is Canada going with euthanasia in 2019?

There's been several concerning developments relating to euthanasia in Canada in the past few weeks, and one exciting update as it relates to ARPA and a court case on euthanasia. In the video below, André touches on two things: First, ARPA's response to the Council of Canadian Academies report on euthanasia, in relation to expanding it to minors, those with mental disabilities, and for advance care directives Second, the exciting news that ARPA Canada, along with Bethesda Foundation in BC and the Anchor Association in Ontario, have been granted...

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20 Sep 2018 Debate on expanding euthanasia continues, ARPA releases new policy report

This fall, Parliament will examine the issue of expanding euthanasia to “mature minors” and to persons with mental illness. Since 2016 (Bill C-14), Canada has permitted anyone who is at least 18, has a grievous and irremediable medical condition, and whose death is reasonably foreseeable, to receive “medical aid in dying” (MAiD). To put it in stark terms, the law now permits medical professionals to kill their adult patients, as long as the patient consents and has the requisite medical conditions. In Spring 2015, ARPA released its first Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia...

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06 Jun 2018 Health Canada wants your input as they develop a palliative care framework

Health Canada is conducting a consultation on palliative care. This is an excellent opportunity for us to provide input which will help them develop a framework on palliative care. We encourage you to participate by sharing the value of palliative care and how it can be promoted. This is a chance to have your voice heard! There are two ways you can participate: Online discussion Health Canada has set up a discussion page where you can leave a reply for each topic. They are putting up a new topic every couple of...

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20 Feb 2018 LN feature: Opposing Fraser Health’s mandate on assisted suicide in BC

Tamara Jansen The ARPA Chapter in Langley, BC, hosted a meeting earlier this month to push back against an effort by Fraser Health - the local body governing health care in the Fraser Valley - to introduce "MAiD" (Medical Assistance in Dying) into the community Hospice facility in Langley. More than 300 people, many of them doctors and other health care professionals, attended the meeting. On the feature this week, and interview with Tamara Jansen, who's with the Langley ARPA chapter, and helped to put that meeting together.  (You can watch a...

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