Ontario Expanding and Investing in Palliative Care in Alliston & Collingwood

SIMCOE-GREY — As part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the Ontario government is expanding access to palliative care services in both Alliston and Collingwood. This is part of Ontario’s $147.4 million investment over three years in communities across the province to connect more Ontarians to comfortable and dignified palliative care close to home and loved ones.

“The provincial government recognizes the tremendous role that hospices play in delivering compassionate, high-quality care to support those with a life limiting illness, and their loved ones, as well as the crucial grief and bereavement services,” said Brian Saunderson, MPP for Simcoe-Grey. “Today’s funding announcement of $940,000, means that each of Hospice Georgian Triangle in Collingwood and Matthews House Hospice in Alliston will receive $470,000. These funds will allow more people to receive the specialized care they need, close to their home. I extend my sincere thanks to Margaret Bachle and Trish Rawn, and their respective staff and volunteer teams for the work they do each day in our communities.”

A portion of this funding will be used to connect people to more palliative and end-of-life services across Ontario including:

• Grief and bereavement supports that help families and caregivers who are grieving the loss of a loved one;
• Advance care planning to help patients and families prepare for future health care decisions; and
• Perinatal palliative care programs that provide specialized grief, bereavement, and peer support that help parents prepare for the loss of their infant.

In addition to expanding palliative care services across the province, this investment will provide existing residential hospice beds in Alliston & Collingwood with over $470,000 each in additional funding over the next two years for nursing, personal support, and other services delivered to patients at Hospice Georgian Triangle and Matthews House Hospice. Ontario is investing over $53.8 million over the next two years to increase funding by 45 per cent for all approved hospice beds in Ontario, plus an additional increase for hospice beds in small facilities.

The provincial investment also includes $10.9 million in multiyear funding to continue operations of 23 additional residential hospice beds through the 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 fiscal years.

“When people approach the end of their life, they deserve to know that they can remain in their community, near loved ones,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Expanding access to end-of-life care in Ontario communities will provide patients and their families with additional choices, helping to ensure they stay close to home in a familiar setting, with the specialized care they need.”

With Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the province is making it easier for people and their families to connect to the care they need throughout their entire life, whether that’s by expanding access to services in their home or community or giving them the choice to book or take an appointment virtually, to ensure hospital and long-term beds are available when it is needed most.

QUICK FACTS:

• Expanding care options in the community is a key part of Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care, the plan to help Ontario families connect to the care they need, in ways that are more convenient for them.
• Ontario is expanding end of life care services by adding 23 new hospice beds to the 509 beds already available across the province to connect Ontarians with end-of-life care.
• Palliative care, which includes end-of-life care, can begin as early as the diagnosis of a serious illness and focuses on improving the quality of each individual’s life, provides integrated and holistic care for individuals, their families, and caregivers and ensures that they have access to the supports they need when facing illness, death, grief, and/or bereavement.

QUOTES:

“We appreciate the Ontario government’s significant investment in hospice palliative care which allows Hospice Georgian Triangle to provide essential end-of-life services to patients and their families. Access to hospice palliative care means that patients can spend their final days in a peaceful, safe, and supportive environment. Investing in palliative care also means that patients are kept out of the hospital if they do not need to be there. This funding reduces the amount we need to raise in the community and supports providing the right care, at the right place, at the right time.”
— Trish Rawn, Executive Director, Hospice Georgian Triangle

“The impact of this investment by the Government of Ontario cannot be overstated. We will use the additional funding judiciously to continue to provide services to the people in our community. Matthews House Hospice is committed to supporting not only our residential clients, but also their caregivers, families, and friends through our residential, outreach, bereavement, and community programs.”
— Margaret Bachle, CEO, Matthews House Hospice

“This investment demonstrates the Government understands the value of community based hospice palliative care and how it impacts the lives of everyone and supports the healthcare system with compassionate and cost effective care. The funding will help families have critical conversations about quality of life as part of their health care planning, it will support families as they journey through grief including parents facing the loss of an infant, and it will sustain hospice residences to meet the growing demand for hospice palliative care.”
— Rick Firth, President and CEO, Hospice Palliative Care Ontario

“This investment in quality hospice palliative care places Ontario as a leader in Canada on an issue that impacts every community. Thanks to the tireless efforts of HPCO, hospices, health care workers, and volunteers, this funding will enable more Ontarians to receive the right care, in the right place. We are thrilled to see this important step forward in Ontario towards a future where everyone can access quality palliative care when they need it most.”
— Laurel Gillespie, CEO, Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association

“Ontario’s doctors support and welcome the government’s commitment to ensuring that every patient in Ontario has access to high-quality palliative care in the setting of their choice, from the time they are diagnosed with a life-limiting illness until they die. The Ontario Medical Association believes that allowing patients to remain in their preferred setting, often the home or home-like settings such as long-term care, provides not just better care and compassionate support for them and their loved ones at this difficult time, but is also a better use of health-care resources.”
— Dr. Andrew Park, President, Ontario Medical Association

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
• Ontario Connecting More People to Care at Home
• Your Health: A Plan for Connected and Convenient Care
• 2023 Ontario Budget: Building a Strong Ontario
• Ontario Provincial Framework for Palliative Care