Report on Working Group Activities and Findings of the Public Forum “Understanding How Compassionate Communities Can Support Those Needing Palliative Care”
When a person is dying they need to be supported by comprehensive and integrated end-of-life care. A key concern identified by the Gabriola Health and Wellness Collaborative was the need to improve professional and family/community support systems for palliative care.
This call to action has resulted in initiatives to address the need to increase medical resources and opportunities for community and volunteer support for the terminally ill and their families.
To further this discussion, On October the 10th 2018 the Gabriola Health Care Foundation sponsored a presentation by Dr. Eman Hassan of The BC Centre for Palliative Care on the concept of Compassionate Communities - a movement premised on the belief that caregiving, dying, death and grieving is everyone’s business and should be inclusive of health and social services, along with family, neighbours and community members. The keynote speaker was followed by table discussions around moving our compassionate community forward in its efforts to create community lead hospice services.