Choosing Supportive & Palliative Care Options

The health professionals will regularly assess your care needs as they change. They will work together with you to manage pain and other symptoms, provide emotional and spiritual support, and plan the care provided in the home to meet the unique needs of you and your family.

Other services that they may provide include teaching family and caregivers how to give direct physical care (e.g., bathing, turning, mouth care, managing incontinence, etc.), prescribing medical equipment and supplies that make caregiving easier (e.g., beds, lifts, etc.), and organizing someone to come into the home so your caregiver may have a break (palliative respite). Community Health Workers can provide you with basic personal care (e.g., washing, dressing, toileting, moving), medication and help with meals. Hospice volunteers and other community members who visit may provide psychological, emotional and spiritual care and connection for you and your family.

The days and hours of professional health services vary by community across Interior Health, and are supplemented with the provincial After Hours Palliative Nursing Service. This is a provincial telephone service available 365 days per year from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. that you can call to discuss any questions or concerns about your care. Ask your Home Health nurse for the brochure with the provincial toll-free number.

As death approaches, Home Health nursing will actively work with your caregivers to ensure your symptoms are well managed and you remain comfortable. This may involve frequent home visits, providing education to yourself and to your caregiver and frequent communication between all members of your health care team, yourself and/or your Substitute Decision Maker.

In British Columbia an expected home death requires some planning and conversation with your doctor or nurse practitioner, and your Home Health nurse. In this province there is no legal requirement for the doctor or nurse practitioner to come to your home to pronounce your death.

However, two forms (Expected Death in the Home and MOST) signed by your doctor or nurse practitioner are needed to communicate appropriately with the Funeral Home and/or the BC Emergency Health Service (Ambulance).

In British Columbia, you can access a community hospice bed to receive palliative respite care or to stabilize your symptoms and then return home. Or you may wish to be in a community hospice bed during the last days or weeks of your life as a chosen place to die.

These types of beds are located in free standing hospice houses (where available), or in long-term care facilities where rooms are specifically designed to be more “hospice-like.” Speak with your Home Health nurse to learn the current per diem (per day) fee associated with these beds or your options to apply for a temporary rate reduction.

Here is where you can find a local hospice or long-term care facility to search for Community Hospice Beds.

Hospitals are reserved for brief admissions to assist with pain and symptom management, with a plan to then go back home or to an alternate site such as a community hospice bed. In some situations, and when there are no other options available, a person may die in hospital to remain in their home community and close to loved ones.

Several Interior Health hospitals offer a “hospice-like” environment to better support patients and their families. You can ask local hospital staff if a palliative room is available in your community.

Interior Health is fortunate to have many hospice societies and organizations within Interior Health. Hospice societies and associations offer invaluable services to their local communities including volunteer support, grief counselling, advance care planning workshops, and much, much more. Here is a list of the hospice organizations within our health care region.

You can also check online or in your local phone book to identify the closest Hospice Society or Association to you. It is never too early to contact hospice for information, education and support throughout the palliative journey, or in any setting of care.