Building on 25+ years of progress in palliative care, the Palliative Care Coalition of Canada (PCCC) has developed a new Blueprint for Action for 2025-2030 to guide its work to continue to improve access to and the quality of palliative care in Canada.
This document was developed to mark progress from previous Blueprints, but also to respond to the results of a commissioned scoping review on gaps in palliative care research and the Progress Report on the Framework on Palliative Care in Canada, which challenged stakeholders in palliative care to continue to advance the goals of the Framework.
The Blueprint will serve as our strategic plan as the PCCC hopes to inspire others in the palliative care community to work with us to ensure everyone in Canada has access to the high-quality palliative care they deserve.
The Blueprint for Action 2025-2030 sets out four priorities of equal importance to build toward:
- Engaged, Informed Public
- Skilled, Supported Care Providers
- Knowledge to Improve Quality of Care and Life
- Equitable Access to High Quality Palliative Care for All
The Blueprint also outlines specific initiatives the Coalition will undertake to achieve each priority as well as the desired outcomes of our work.
The PCCC is launching this document during National Hospice Palliative Care Week, but also during this time of national unity and resilience in the face of new economic challenges.
PCCC-Blueprint-for-Action-2025-2030
Our healthcare systems are a point of pride in terms of who we are as residents of Canada. In 2022, an Environics Institute poll found that 78% identified our healthcare systems as a very important part of our identity. We even advertise them to the world as a reason to move here. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for improvement – even if it is not the crisis of the moment.
Wait times are rising, driven by a lack of capacity and staffing. Demographic changes are creating additional pressures – and the systems are heavily impacted by rising costs and our economic climate. There are some hard conversations ahead about the future of our healthcare systems, and we need to act before the healthcare systems buckle under the weight of these burdens.
Having hard conversations is something the palliative care community understands all too well. Palliative care centres the whole person not just as a patient, but as a member of a family, with a community around them. It seeks to provide care through an interdisciplinary team of professionals that work collaboratively to meet their needs and wishes.
Professionals integrating a palliative approach to care know how to coordinate care, solve problems for patients and their families, overcome systemic barriers, and help caregivers cope with the challenges and realities of caring for people with a serious illness.
As our new federal government seeks to address the challenges we face as a country, how we take care of one another needs to be part of the conversation. At a time when we are more united than ever, we have a unique opportunity to transform the healthcare systems that are at the core of who we are. Our palliative care community already knows how to manage many of the pain points we face in our healthcare systems. This plan will help us to lead the conversation to build systems that deliver person and family-centred care and real results for everyone in Canada.
Leave a Reply