The Government of New Brunswick has announced its framework for a palliative care strategy to help improve access to palliative and end-of-life care services.
New Brunswick Seniors and Long-Term Care Minister Lisa Harris said an advisory committee will be set up to develop an action plan. The committee will be led by the New Brunswick Cancer Network, made up of representatives from palliative care, health care and community stakeholders.
Harris said there will be $2.5 million put into the framework and said there will be more money invested in the future.
“Today’s announcement is so much more than just money, it’s about having the opportunity for people that are at the stage of their life when they need palliative care services to be able to get those services right in their own home,” Harris said.
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Harris said there isn’t a timeline yet, but said the committee will get to work as soon as possible.
“What we know is that New Brunswickers are going to have better, easier access to palliative care and that there’s going to be teams in place that are going to be able to go into people’s homes and to really support them. Support the person that’s suffering from the illness, but as well to support their families as they go through the different stages of the end of life and that’s what’s extremely important today,” Harris said.
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New Brunswick Hospice and Palliative Care Association president Dr. Renée Turcotte said the framework has been “a long time coming and is critically needed at this time.”
Turcotte said there has been a need for this since 2013 and said there needs to be more hospices in the province and more funding for them. She said not everybody wants to die at home, but said many don’t want to die in the hospital if there’s another choice.
She said she wants to see more money go towards increasing wages for home-care workers and home-care delivery and services.
There are only two hospices in the province at the moment — one in Fredericton and one in Saint John.
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“We have places where people have very good care but it’s not equal all across New Brunswick so we want to have the same level of care wherever you are in New Brunswick, wherever you live, wherever you come from,” Turcotte said.
Harris made the announcement at Hospice House in Fredericton and shared her own personal story about the importance of palliative home care.
“My mother passed away and we kept her at home as long as we could but it came the time that she needed palliative care so she went to the hospital in Miramichi and it was good, it was good care, but you can’t compare being in a hospital or being in your home, but at that time, the services weren’t there, they weren’t available,” Harris said.
She said there were people helping her family, but said it wasn’t what they needed.
“The death of a loved one is very traumatic. When you are sitting with somebody and you’re going through the end stages of their life, it’s very hard, it’s not easy to do and when you have to go into a hospital, it just takes away that homey feeling.
“But to be able to keep a loved one at home, if we would have been able to have had those same supports, we would have kept our mother at home and we would have been able to benefit from all of the wonderful programs that they have in place, and she would have been able to live a better quality of life in her own home,” Harris said.