Group launches palliative care training campaign – May 29, 2026

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[00:00:01]Good morning. My name is Jeffrey Mott.

[00:00:03]I'm the chief executive officer président-directeur général of Pallium Canada, the largest provider of palliative care education in this country.

[00:00:13]I'm joined today by partners from across long-term care, frontline care, education, and accreditation.

[00:00:21]Dr. Amit Arya is a palliative care physician and health system leader in long-term care focused on advancing care for older adults through clinical innovation, education, and research.

[00:00:33]Miranda Romanowich, chief executive officer of the Canadian Support Workers Association.

[00:00:39]And with us is also Brenda Agnew of the Canadian Association of Long-Term Care. And we also have Penny Gagne, chief advisor at Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, who is here as a technical resource offering accreditation principles.

[00:00:55]You'll hear from them in just a moment.

[00:00:58]Together, we represent the people who are actually delivering care, supporting families, and preparing health care workforce across this country.

[00:01:49]81% of long-term care residents do not have documented evidence of receiving palliative care in their last year of life, and that has a real consequences for residents who are experiencing unnecessary suffering, for families who are left without clear communication or support, and for staff who are doing their best in situations that they have not been properly prepared for.

[00:02:18]Pallium Canada has spent the last 25 years building palliative care capacity across this country.

[00:02:26]We have trained over 100,000 learners, and we have worked with more than 200 health system partners, including long-term care homes.

[00:02:36]We are ready to lead this work, but we cannot do it without the right infrastructure and investment.

[00:02:45]A standard alone will not change practice.

[00:02:49]Homes need implementation support, role-based training, mentorship, coaching, leadership development, and tools that are integrated into daily care.

[00:03:01]I also want to be clear about what this proposal is not. It's not about adding burden to long-term care homes. It's not about adding another layer of compliance.

[00:03:12]This must be co-developed with the sector and aligned with existing accreditation and quality improvement pathways.

[00:04:01]>> Every Canadian deserves comfort and dignity. Every family deserves support.

[00:04:07]Every worker deserves to be properly trained for the care that they are being asked to provide.

[00:04:14]And we have a clear solution.

[00:04:16]Now, we need the leadership and the investment to implement it. I would now like to welcome Dr. Amit Arya to say a few remarks.

[00:04:33]>> Thank you, Jeff. Good morning, everyone.

[00:04:36]I'm a palliative care physician who works across 10 long-term care homes and has more than a decade of experience in the sector.

[00:04:44]And I want to say one thing very clearly.

[00:04:47]Palliative care is not just about the final days or weeks of life.

[00:04:51]And it's not about giving up.

[00:04:53]Rather, palliative care helps residents live with comfort and dignity at any stage, supports families through difficult medical decisions, and helps prevent crisis-driven transfers to hospital.

[00:05:08]In Canada, the median survival for a long-term care resident after admission is just 18 months.

[00:05:16]Residents live with serious, incurable, and progressive illnesses such as dementia. And the long-term care home is almost always where they will live out the final chapter of their lives.

[00:05:30]And that is why palliative care is essential to high-quality long-term care.

[00:05:37]When palliative care is initiated early, symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, and anxiety are better managed and identified sooner.

[00:05:47]Residents are more comfortable and have an improved quality of life.

[00:05:52]Families are better supported to make decisions about medical treatment and hospital transfers guided by their loved one's wishes.

[00:06:02]In all of my frontline work and experience in long-term care, I have seen that when staff do not have the education, skills, and tools needed to provide palliative care, care often becomes reactive and crisis-driven.

[00:06:18]Residents experience worsened pain and suffering.

[00:06:22]Families are asked to make medical decisions for their loved ones in moments of crisis without enough information and without enough time to prepare.

[00:06:32]Too often, this results in residents being transferred to overcrowded emergency departments when they could have been cared for right in their own long-term care home.

[00:06:43]For a frail senior, especially someone living with dementia, a transfer to the emergency department can be frightening, disorienting, and deeply uncomfortable.

[00:06:54]And many of these transfers are avoidable.

[00:06:57]Preventing avoidable transfers starts with supporting the people providing care every day in Canada's long-term care homes.

[00:07:06]Long-term care home staff are incredibly dedicated and compassionate, but that dedication and compassion needs to be matched with consistent palliative care education, practical skills, and tools to deliver the care that residents deserve.

[00:07:23]And that is why a national palliative care training standard for long-term care matters.

[00:07:30]Long-term care is highly specialized care.

[00:07:33]Staff deserve clear expectations for what they need to know, along with the time, resources, and implementation support to put that knowledge into practice.

[00:07:44]Because palliative care in long-term care is not about giving up.

[00:07:49]It's about helping vulnerable seniors live the best life possible with the least suffering in the place they call home.

[00:07:56]Thank you, everyone.

[00:07:58]Miranda.

[00:08:11]>> Support workers are on the front lines of care every single day.

[00:08:15]They're the ones closest to residents in our long-term care homes.

[00:08:19]They are the people helping residents get up in the morning, assisting with meals, providing comfort, offering emotional support, and often sitting beside someone during the most difficult moments of their lives.

[00:08:31]When a resident is scared, declining, or nearing end of life, support workers are usually the first to recognize that something is changing.

[00:08:41]Support workers are already central to caring for residents who would benefit from a palliative approach.

[00:08:47]They are often the people who know residents best, notice changes first, provide comfort, support families, and help preserve dignity in daily care.

[00:08:57]At the same time, care has become significantly more complex. Residents are presenting with higher acuity, more advanced illness, dementia, mental health concerns, and complex behavioral needs. Yet, frontline training, role clarity, and practical support have not kept pace with that reality.

[00:09:17]That is why a national palliative care training standard matters.

[00:09:21]It would formally recognize the essential role support workers already play, while ensuring they have the consistent, practical, role-specific education and team support needed to provide that care with confidence.

[00:09:35]Too often, support workers are expected to navigate emotional and medically complex situations with little practical preparation.

[00:09:43]Many are learning in real-time while trying to provide compassionate care under pressure.

[00:09:49]What support workers need is practical, frontline focused education that reflects the realities of the job, not overly academic training disconnected from day-to-day care. They need education that helps them recognize when a resident is declining, understand how to respond when someone is in distress, communicate concerns effectively with the interdisciplinary care team, and support families who may be struggling to understand what is happening to their loved ones.

[00:10:19]When support workers are properly trained and supported in palliative care, it directly improves quality of life for residents and their families.

[00:10:28]It also reduces unnecessary hospital transfers and strengthens continuity of care within our long-term care homes.

[00:10:35]Just as importantly, support workers need protected time and organized and organized support to complete this training. Right now, many frontline workers have little or no dedicated learning time. If palliative education becomes simply another requirement added onto an already overwhelmed workforce without meaningful support behind it, it will fail to reach the people who need it the most.

[00:11:00]Training must also be accessible, inclusive, and reflective of the diverse support worker workforce, including individuals working in a second language and those coming from a wide range of educational and cultural backgrounds.

[00:11:16]Support workers are already carrying a tremendous responsibility within our health care system. This is about ensuring they have the tools, education, confidence, and support necessary to provide compassionate, dignified care during some of the most vulnerable moments in a resident's life.

[00:11:33]We cannot continue expecting support workers to care for individuals throughout serious illness, decline, and end-of-life without properly equipping them to do so.

[00:11:44]A national palliative palliative care training standard for support workers would help ensure frontline staff across Canada have access to consistent, practical education that strengthens care, supports families, and improves dignity and comfort for residents when they need it the most.

[00:12:02]Penny.

[00:12:12]>> Good morning.

[00:12:14]From an accreditation and quality perspective, CARF Canada is here as a technical resource and to offer a perspective on what implementation would need to look like in practice and to highlight those conditions to support successful integration into quality frameworks.

[00:12:32]We already have strong standards in long-term care that focus on person-centered care, quality improvement, resident dignity, and family engagement. One thing that continues to be a consideration and is of a challenge is a lack of a consistent role-based uh training approach to palliative care that translates those principles into everyday practice.

[00:12:57]Addressing this gap continues to be an important consideration across the system, but implementation will absolutely matter.

[00:13:07]It is important that any approach a palliative care training takes is not to be seen as a new federally imposed operating requirement for long-term care homes.

[00:13:18]The value with a training standard for long-term care is that it is co-developed with the sector and aligned with those existing systems.

[00:13:27]That includes accreditation bodies, provinces and territories, workforce partners, and residents and families.

[00:13:34]An important goal is strengthening what already exists, rather than creating parallel processes.

[00:13:41]From CARF's perspective, alignment is a very important consideration.

[00:13:46]Integrating into existing accreditation and quality improvement frameworks will support greater practicality, measurability, and true relevance for homes. This will also help to avoid duplication and reduce unnecessary burden.

[00:14:02]Effective effective initiatives in this space will need to take broad expectations around quality care and take the time to translate them into something actionable.

[00:14:13]This includes clear role-based competencies, accessible learning, practical implementation supports, integration into daily workflows, and the ability to measure real changes in the practice.

[00:14:26]Training cannot be a one-time event, and organizations often find greater impact when training is embedded in how care is delivered every single day.

[00:14:37]CARF Canada recognizes the value of aligning palliative care training with existing accreditation and quality improvement pathways, so that long-term care homes are supported to strengthen care and to do that without unnecessary duplication or burden. Jeff.

[00:15:01]>> Thank you, Penny.

[00:15:03]>> [clears throat] >> What you have heard today is a consistent message from across the system.

[00:15:10]From clinical care to frontline workers to workforce development and accreditation, the gap is clear.

[00:15:19]Palliative care is not being delivered consistently in long-term care.

[00:15:24]And the consequences are very real.

[00:15:27]They're real for residents, they're real for their families, and they're very real for staff, and for the health system as a whole.

[00:15:35]But what is equally clear clear is that this is a very solvable problem.

[00:15:41]We're not starting from scratch. We have the expertise, we have the partners, and we have a practical, scalable solution that can be implemented across the country. What is needed now is leadership and an investment to make that happen.

[00:16:26]Because at the end of the day, this is about how we care for people at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives, and that is a reflection of who we are as a country.

[00:16:39]Thank you.

[00:16:40]Merci. We would now be happy to take questions from the media. Nous serons maintenant heureux de répondre aux questions des médias.

[00:16:49]>> Thank you. We don't have any questions at the moment. This will conclude the press conference.

[00:16:56]>> Thank you.