End of life means a person has an illness that is getting worse, cannot be cured, and is likely to cause his or her death. On average, 87,000 adults died in Ontario each year from 2007 to 2009. Of those, 40 percent died at home or in a long-term care facility.
People at end of life need many health care services to help manage symptoms, cope with impending death and meet their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. How these services are delivered can affect people’s comfort and quality of life, and how they feel about their end-of-life care.
Health Quality Ontario Reviews End-of-Life Care
Health Quality Ontario analyzed and prepared evidence-based analyses for several end-of-life care topics:
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What factors affect the place of death
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Patient-care planning discussions
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How to help informal caregivers
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Resuscitating patients
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Patient, informal caregiver, and health care provider education
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Team-based models of care
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care endorses these recommendations.
The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has provided the following response: The Ministry agrees with most of these recommendations, however, with regard to proactive discussion between patients and their clinicians (including with respect to CPR), the Ministry endorses a patient-centred approach. The Ministry has launched the Ontario Palliative Care Network, an organized partnership of a broad range of stakeholders, to support the Ministry’s ongoing commitment to strengthen palliative and end- of-life care in Ontario.