Grant: Knowledge Synthesis Grant

As the Canadian population ages, serious chronic and life-limiting illness will become more of a concern. Many people in such circumstances will be in need of compassionate care at the end of life (EOL). Studies show that patients and families are not completely satisfied with the quality of EOL care provided in Canada and there are many areas of improvement to be made. While we know much about the care of cancer patients, this is not the case with other chronic diseases, mainly because their course of dying is much different than that of cancer patients. Because of this, many people with chronic life-limiting and serious illness do not spend their time accessing palliative care services but rather have no specific health care delivery system. Therefore, patients and families who could greatly benefit from the application of a palliative approach do not. We are interested in learning more about a palliative approach in order to direct health service planning and policy development for patients with chronic life-limiting and serious illness. We will do this by reviewing and synthesizing published information about a palliative approach using a systematic and rigorous method. We will engage people in the health system who are most in need of this information (clinicians, managers, policy makers) so that they can be informed when they are making decisions about care.