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A cancer diagnosis can cause significant psychological, physical,
emotional, and spiritual suffering for patients and their
loved ones. Regional Cancer Care is focused on patient-centred
care, ensuring that our patients and their families are well
supported throughout the course of their illness. We are committed
to maximizing patients’ quality of life and minimizing
symptom burden.
So important is this process that Cancer Care Ontario has
appointed palliative care physicians across Ontario to ensure
formal, high quality palliative care programs exist in each
of its regions. These programs identify needs and gaps in
current services, allowing continuous improvement of the care
we provide.
What is Palliative Care?
At Regional Cancer Care, a supportive environment and guided
assistance in receiving the right services at the most appropriate
time are key components of effective care. A broad array of
supportive care services are available for both patients and
their families.
Following Cancer Care Ontario’s palliative care strategy
and vision, Regional Cancer Care also believes that every
person, when faced with a life threatening diagnosis, “should
have the opportunity to live life fully, to receive the best
symptom management, and should be supported with dignity and
respect throughout the course of their illness. And in the
face of incurable disease each person should have the opportunity
to die in a setting of their choice.”
- Palliative care is an approach
that improves the quality of life of patients and
their families facing the problems associated with
life-threatening illness, through the prevention
and relief of suffering by means of early identification
and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain
and other problems, physical, psychological and
spiritual. (World Health Organization)
- Palliative care is aimed at relief
of suffering and improving the quality of life for
person who are living with or dying from advanced
illness or are bereaved. (Canadian Hospice/Palliative
Care Association)
- Palliative care refers to both
a program and a concept of care based on the provision
of comfort. It is designed for individuals who are
living with, or dying from, a progressive life threatening
illness. The program enhances quality of life through
pain and symptom control and provides emotional
and spiritual support for both patients and families.
Compassionate and specialized care is provided with
specialized knowledge and skills. (Canadian Cancer
Society)
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From Hospital to Home Care
Palliative care is a team effort across all aspects of cancer
patient care. Whether receiving care at home, at Regional
Cancer Care or in hospital, there are standard tools being
used for symptom screening and assessment. This allows the
patient care team to “speak the same language”
and use standardized guidelines based upon the most current
research.
ISAAC – A new way to monitor pain and symptoms
Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre now has a new
secure, web-based program designed by CCO that allows cancer
patients to log their pain and symptom scores. Patient use
touch screen computers at Regional Cancer Care to enter their
scores using the widely used symptom screening tool –
ESAS (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System).
This web system, called ISAAC (Interactive Symptom Assessment
and Collection), provides immediate information about a patient’s
physical and mental well being. It allows the patient’s
healthcare provider to track changes in symptoms and adjust
their care plans for the best possible pain and symptom management.
Once the patient has initially used the computer
at the cancer centre, they can also start to use the Internet
at home to log their ESAS scores on a daily or weekly basis
via the secured website. Providing patients from
our regional communities with the opportunity to enter their
scores from the comfort of their home is an important feature
in keeping closer contact with their team of cancer healthcare
providers.
If a cancer patient is on Community Care Access Centre (CCAC)
services, ESAS scores are also entered into the ISAAC system
for a complete, integrated record of symptom management across
all sectors of care.
ISAAC provides patients and their families with a strong
voice to express their symptom burden and to ensure that their
concerns are not only heard but met in a timely fashion, no
matter where the patient is receiving care.
Striving for Excellence
We are working closely with the Community Care Access Centre’s
(CCAC) End of Life Strategy to create a Regional Palliative
Care Network to maximize supports and services for all of
our patients and healthcare providers across the region.
We are committed to providing the required support and education
needed to ensure excellence in palliative care. We are working
with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to ensure there
is a robust infusion of important palliative topics in its
curricula, and that its students and residents have ample
opportunity to learn and find passion in a career in palliative
care.
We must ensure that the services we provide truly improve
the quality of life of our patients and that we continue to
strive for excellence in our care. We have instituted research
to identify gaps in our current care and ensure that the programs
throughout continue to improve.
Click on a name below to learn more about some of the Palliative
Care team at Regional Cancer Care:
Dr. Geoff Davis, Medical Director, Palliative Care
Sue
Bailey, Palliative Care Clinician
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