CANMORE – It can be difficult to talk about death when it comes to our loved ones, but a local non-profit hopes a new speaker’s series will help Bow Valley residents begin to think about end of life care.
The Palliative Care Society of the Bow Valley hopes its series of talks about grief before and after death will encourage residents to begin having conversations about making room in life for mourning as part of the human experience of love and loss. The first talk will be held on Sept. 25.
Alberta Health Services grief support program manager Tracey Sutton will explore the experience of loss and provide information about how to understand grief and what can be done to make room for it in our lives.
Society board chair Martin Tweeddale said while long-term plans for the organization include a palliative care hospice, they want to reach out into the community and begin to have conversations that contribute toward a compassionate understanding of end of life care and options when a life-altering diagnosis or change occurs.
“We have three major roles,” Tweeddale said. “How do we help with the actual care that people need? That is where a hospice comes in. How do we provide care and support for people while they are at home and when home becomes impossible for them and their caregivers? And how do we help the community get involved in this.”
He said having conversations around these issues could prepare the community for when it happens to someone they know or care about.
“That is what the speakers series is all about,” he said. “We can deal with individuals that have diseases, but there are 13,000 other people that can become aware and we can help, so when it happens in their family they are better prepared.”
While not everyone may need palliative care at the end of their lives, Tweeddale said everyone should be having conversations around what they would want at the end of their life, including organ donation.
A retired ICU physician from the U.K., Tweeddale has seen opportunities for organ donation missed because family members of a person at the end of their life were uncertain of their wishes.
“The whole point of the speaker series is to try and raise awareness and give people the tools and resources they need to prepare for this, so it does not come as a total shock undermining the foundations of ones life,” he said. “The reach of palliative care goes in both directions and the aim is that every patient that has a diagnosis of a life-limiting illness will be in touch with someone from the society.”
The Palliative Care Society of the Bow Valley is just a couple years old and its focus is on filling in the gaps for services available in the community. That includes developing a day hospice care centre, providing professional development training for caregivers including family members and health care workers, developing a resource guide specific to the Bow Valley and providing a better end of life experience for residents.
“The aim of the hospice is to be able to keep people in their home, perhaps for longer,” Tweeddale said. “That is a building to which people who are still at home can come to and provides medical services like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and helping cope with increasing immobility.”
Go to www.palliativecarebowvalley.com to find out more about the organization and upcoming events.
