Grant: Planning Grants - Priority Announcement: Health Services and Policy Research

Persons suffering from terminal stages of illness can experience physical limitations, cognitive impairments, and pain. This influences the person's ability to perform tasks related to self-care and maintain overall autonomy. Every person accessing services provided by community care organization has a right to remain at home as long as possible. Home care is provided by healthcare professionals who assess the person's overall needs, determine a plan of care, and provide the healthcare services necessary for them to remain at home. interRAI is an international not-for-profit research organization that has developed a number of comprehensive assessment instruments designed to evaluate the needs of persons in different care settings. The Ontario Association for Community Care Access Centre's have recently adopted the use of the interRAI Palliative Care instrument. The purpose of this instrument is to facilitate support to persons with a life threatening illness, using an assessment instrument designed specifically for this sector. The purpose of the proposed meeting is to gather experts in the field of palliative care to expand the applications of the information gathered in the interRAI Palliative Care instrument. Specifically, to develop a set of protocols that can be used to guide service planning and aid in the prevention of unnecessary emergency department visits.