Palliative Care


Palliative Care

CERAH provides a number of palliative care educational events throughout the year. These events are organized for health care personnel throughout Northwestern Ontario with a particular focus on providers working in the community or in long-term care. Events are organized and delivered based on identified local needs and costs are subsidized in whole or in part by funding provided by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Education planning is done in conjunction with the Northwestern Ontario End-of-Life Care Network. CERAH is also willing to work with other organizations to deliver additional courses on a partnership and/or cost recovery basis.

COURSES

1a) Palliative Care in Long-Term Care

1b) Palliative Care for Personal Support Workers

The majority of Canada's elderly die in hospitals and long-term care facilities, affirming the need for continuing education on palliative care. CERAH has developed a 15 hour (6 module) course based on the identified learning needs and preferred educational format of front-line providers. The course is presented in a flexible manner. Past evaluations of the program indicate an increased comfort level and confidence in the provision of palliative care by Personal Support Workers who have taken the program. Content includes:

  • Dying in Canada
  • Physical Aspects of Dying and Pain
  • Working with Families
  • Grief and Bereavement
  • Planning for Death
  • Helping Relationships and Self-Care

2.Palliative Care for Front-Line Workers in First Nations Communities

CERAH has developed a 15 hour (5 module) course based on the identified learning needs of front-line providers in First Nations communities. This course is similar to the Palliative Care for Personal Support Workers course but content has been tailored to reflect the unique needs of First Nations communities. Content includes:

  • Creating Context
  • Last Hours of Living
  • Pain
  • Working with Individuals and Their Families
  • Culture
  • Community Care Teams
  • Grief and Bereavement
  • Helping Relationships and Self-Care

3. LEAP

How comfortable are you in providing the best palliative/end-of-life care for your patients and caregivers?  Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative and End of Life Care (LEAP) is a 13 hour (11 module) course designed to help with common and difficult end-stage patient and family care clinical issues in the community. It is based on the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association model and is designed to engage health care providers (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) in a variety of learning opportunities. LEAP facilitates interprofessional collaboration and supports individual and team practice change. Content includes:

  • Module 1: Creating Context
  • Module 2: GI Problems
  • Module 3: Pain Management
  • Module 4: Respiratory Problems
  • Module 5: Communication
  • Module 6: Depression, Anxiety and Suffering
  • Module 7: Grief & Bereavement
  • Module 8: Delirium
  • Module 9: Palliative Sedation
  • Module 10: Last Days &Hours
  • Module 11: Working as a Team

The delivery of LEAP to regional communities has been identified as a priority by the Northwest End-of-Life Network and a significant portion of the CERAH budget is allocated to this. Participants are from a variety of professions (medicine, nursing, social work) and from the acute care, community and long-term care sectors. CERAH works with the CCAC End-of-Life Care Coordinator to organize the delivery of LEAP in regional communities at a time and location that best meets local needs.

WORKSHOPS

On an annual basis CERAH organizes a variety of workshops based on identified needs. Topics have included:

  • Dying at Home: Putting Your House in Order
  • Communication in Palliative Care
  • Palliative Care for Spiritual Advisors
  • Pain Management in the Elderly

VIDEOCONFERENCES

1. Palliative Care Education for First Nations Communities

This series of 6 video conferences on palliative care is designed to provide a general overview of palliative care topics to front-line care providers. The content is based on the palliative care curriculum CERAH developed for Personal Support Workers and also incorporates content from Caring for the Terminally Ill: Honouring the Choices of the Elders.

2. CME Videoconferences

Throughout the year CERAH organizes a variety of videoconferences targeted primarily to regional physicians. Some examples include:

  • Methadone in the Management of Cancer and Non-Cancer Pain
  • Pain: Problems, Strategies and Solutions
  • Integrated Management of Cardiovascular Risk: Hypertension and Dyslipidemia
  • Paediatric Palliative Care
  • Questions You'd Like to Ask a Cardiologist
  • Managing Opioids, Pain and Addiction
  • Real World Asthma Management
  • Management of Moderate to Severe Pain

3. International Telehealth Palliative Care Symposium

CERAH is pleased to partner with The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium to deliver an annual International Telehealth Palliative Care Symposium that is videoconferenced and web streamed with sites in Ontario, Alaska, the United States and New Zealand.

Conferences

  • CERAH hosts a 2.5 day bi-annual Palliative Care Conference in Thunder Bay.
  • On alternate years CERAH hosts a 1 day Palliative Care Booster (mini-conference).

If you would like more information about any of CERAH's palliative care education events or would like to suggest future events, please contact Jessica Wyatt at (807) 766-7263 or jlwyatt@lakeheadu.ca.