Palliative Care

Palliative care is an approach to care that focuses on relieving suffering and improving the quality of life for people with a life-limiting illness and their families.

People with advanced kidney disease have challenges distinct from those with cancer or other chronic illnesses. They are often elderly with complex medical histories, and experience distressing symptoms including chronic pain, fatigue and stress.

Purpose

To improve the quality of palliative care for people with chronic kidney disease in Ontario, we work to provide an integrated and continuous approach to care delivered earlier and across care settings.

Major Initiatives

• Established a working group with representation from multiple disciplines and specialties, and patients and families
• Developed a provincial framework and recommendations to guide the integration of palliative care into chronic kidney disease care 
• Implemented person-centred decision-making across the province, and started collecting assessment data on goals of care, and treatment decision and informed consent
• Collaborated with Pallium Canada to develop and deliver Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (LEAP) Renal across the province
• Identified a physician and a multidisciplinary care local champion in each of the 27 Regional Renal Programs