Canadians' Views on Palliative Care

Palliative Care Matters is a national initiative designed to develop consensus on the steps that need to be taken now to ensure Canadians can access high-quality palliative care services as part of Canada's universal healthcare model. Covenant Health and the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer joined with leading national health organizations to lead this initiative, resulting in a Consensus Development Conference in November 2016. Six questions were identified by experts in the field to form the basis of the conference. The questions were first explored with Canadians through focus groups to assess views toward the topics. The qualitative research results were then used to develop an online survey conducted with 1540 Canadians to gauge views on palliative care. The survey results identified what essential elements should be included in a palliative care (and home care) program. Canadians express a desire for palliative healthcare providers to have "specialized certifications" and they have a moderate level of self-confidence in their own palliative caregiving knowledge and abilities. Awareness of palliative care is not widespread in Canada, but support for a modest educational public health campaign is prevalent. Canadians also strongly support national palliative care standards and integration into the Canada Health Act, but simultaneously express financial concerns regarding the associated costs required. The public opinion survey results were used as part of the deliberations at the Consensus Development Conference, culminating in a consensus statement being issued to inform potential policy options and implementation plans for palliative care in Canada.