Anyone with comments, concerns, questions or anecdotes concerning palliative care or end of life supports in the Bow Valley should take part in a couple of upcoming community conversations.
Hosted by the Palliative Care Society of the Bow Valley, the newly-formed non-profit group is looking to gather input from the public in moving forward as a society.
The next community conversations take place April 5 at Elevation Place in Canmore from 6-9 p.m. and April 12 at the Homestead building in Cochrane from 1-4 p.m. The inaugural event was March 9 in Banff.
The society, said Dr. Martin Tweeddale, is looking for public input to help guide it in the future; with the eventual goal of a palliative care home with respite beds built near Canmore Hospital.
Society members will be on hand to give an overview of PCSBV, “but what we’re looking for are what’s good and what’s bad, from personal experience,” said Tweeddale.
“We want to find out what people think of palliative and end of life care here, and how we could fill in some of the gaps. We also want to find out people’s perception and understanding of this type of care.
“We want people to understand the current concept and that we want people to live well in the last years of their life, not just at the end.
“There is no set agenda, that will be determined at the meeting; we just want to hear from people, we very much want to listen and get a perspective on what needs to be done.”
The community conversations project is in cooperation with the Cumming School of Medicine (University of Calgary) and Alberta Health Services.
Once input and information has been gathered through the community events, faculty of the Cumming School will put together an analysis.
“The Cumming School has a community outreach segment, which is led by a palliative physician who is very interested in us, as we’re just starting out,” said Tweeddale.
PCSBV has been in the works for a couple of years, with volunteers forming and creating the non-profit. The idea is that a palliative care housein Canmore would serve valley residents from Cochrane to Lake Louise, including Stoney Nakoda, and Calgarians as part of the AHS zone.
Ideally, the palliative care house would be a freestanding, home-like environment close to the hospital where services like food preparation and laundry could be shared, with cancer beds near at hand.
For more information on the society, visit www.palliativecarebowvalley.ca.
