What is Palliative Care?

Palliative care in LTC focuses on comfort, dignity, and quality of life for residents with serious or life-limiting illnesses—not just at the end of life, but throughout illness progression.

Goals of Palliative Care

• Relieve pain and symptoms (e.g., breathlessness, anxiety, nausea)
• Support emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial needs
• Maintain resident dignity and preferences
• Involve residents and families in care decisions and advance care planning

Key Components in LTC

1. Person-Centered Care

• Respect resident wishes, cultural values, and beliefs
• Use advance directives and goals-of-care discussions

2. Symptom Management

• Pain control (regular assessment and timely intervention)
• Managing common symptoms:
• Shortness of breath
• Agitation/confusion
• Fatigue
• Loss of appetite

3. Interdisciplinary Team Approach

• Nurses, PSWs, physicians, social workers, and spiritual care
• All Team members have a role to play
• Collaboration ensures holistic care

4. Communication

• Honest, compassionate conversations about:
• Prognosis
• Goals of care
• End-of-life expectations
• Regular updates to families or persons of importance

5. End-of-Life Care

• Focus shifts to comfort and dignity
• Support during the final days and hours
• Provide a calm, respectful environment
• Initiating our Butterfly Program to support the resident, their family members and their persons of importance

Grief affects not only families and persons of importance but also residents and staff.

Who Needs Support?

• Families or persons of importance of residents who are declining or have passed
• Residents grieving the loss of peers
• Staff experiencing cumulative loss (compassion fatigue)

Types of Grief in LTC

• Anticipatory grief – before death occurs
• Acute grief – immediately after loss
• Complicated grief – prolonged or intensified grief
• Disenfranchised grief – grief that is not openly acknowledged (common in staff)

Supporting Families or Persons of Importance

Key Approaches:

• Provide clear, compassionate communication
• Encourage time with loved ones (flexible visiting where possible)
• Offer privacy and a peaceful space
• Provide information on what to expect near end of life
• Follow-up support after death (bereavement calls, resources)

Supporting Residents

• Acknowledge losses (friends, independence, health)
• Provide opportunities to:
• Talk and share memories
• Participate in the Walk of Life
• Participate in the Celebration of Life
• Offer emotional and spiritual support

Supporting Staff

LTC staff frequently experience grief due to close relationships with residents.

Strategies:

• Debrief after resident deaths
• Encourage peer support
• Provide access to counseling or EAP
• Promote self-care and resilience
• Recognize and validate grief

Meaningful Practices at the Pines

• Remembrance boards
• The Walk of Life - honouring the resident
• Celebration of Life
• Candle placed at the dining room seat of the resident who has passed

Risks if Support is Lacking

• Burnout and compassion fatigue in staff
• Emotional distress in families
• Reduced quality of care

Key Takeaway

Palliative care at the Pines is about living well until the end, while grief and loss support ensures no one—resident, family, or staff—faces that journey alone.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to speak with a member of our leadership team, or Social Worker (Andrea Groomes), or a member of the Registered Staff.