National Hospice Palliative Care Week

OTTAWA, Ontario, April 29, 2016 -- This year's National Hospice Palliative Care Week is entitled "Hospice Palliative Care First" and encourages Canadians to advocate for quality hospice palliative care at their local levels. The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA), which organizes the campaign every year, hopes that individuals will use the resources developed this year to act as champions for end-of-life care in Canada by sharing and distributing them within their communities.

The CHPCA's principle behind this campaign is the hope that education and awareness of hospice palliative care nation-wide will encourage federal and provincial leadership in providing more support for the care that aging Canadians need. The organization is encouraging individuals to partake in advocacy through certain activities including: speaking out to the media, meeting with provincial and federal representatives, and promoting resources from the Speak Up: Advance Care Planning (ACP) campaign.

"The more we can encourage people at the local level to champion for hospice palliative care, the louder our collective voices will be," said Sharon Baxter, Executive Director of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. "People at all ages can get involved in this campaign simply by starting the conversation about end-of-life care and by sharing resources on our website and in the kits."

For this year's campaign, the CHPCA has released a bilingual call-to-action poster listing ways that people can get involved and make difference. Also included is a "myth-buster" poster, intended to clarify facts about hospice palliative care, and an F.A.Q. poster directed towards physicians about end-of-life care.

"This campaign is a call-to-action for all Canadians, including caregivers, physicians and political leaders in the name of hospice palliative care."

National Hospice Palliative Care Week is coordinated by the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. Funding for National Hospice Palliative Care Week is provided by Purdue, Innovative Medicines Canada, and GlaxoSmithKline. For more information, and promotional materials for National Hospice Palliative Care Week, please go to www.chpca.net/week.

The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association -- the national voice for hospice palliative care in Canada – is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in care for persons approaching death so that the burdens of suffering, loneliness and grief are lessened. The CHPCA operates in close partnership with other national organizations and continues to work to ensure that all Canadians, regardless of where they may live, have equal access to quality hospice palliative care services for themselves and their family.

CONTACT: Sarah Levesque
         Communications Officer 
         CHPCA
         1-800-668-2785, x 229
         [email protected]