We need to reach every family caring for a child with a serious illness
Canuck Place Children’s Hospice is the pediatric palliative care provider for BC and the Yukon. Care is provided for children 0–19 diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and their families. Specialist pediatric palliative care relieves suffering, improves quality of life, and supports children and families to be at home. For families who sadly experience the death of their child, Canuck Place specialist grief and bereavement support cares for them in their journey.
Canuck Place depends on the community to give seriously-ill children a chance to live life to the fullest, to their individual potential, and with the time they have remaining. The demand for pediatric palliative care is increasing, and we share our gratitude with you for joining our goal to reach every family caring for a child with a life-threatening illness who needs help in BC and the Yukon – so no one walks this journey alone.
Demand for pediatric palliative care
The demand for the essential services Canuck Place provides is high in BC.
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Demand for grief, loss and bereavement counselling
In BC and the Yukon, Canuck Place is the only provincial specialized bereavement care provider for families experiencing childhood deaths.
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Demand for Enhanced Community Care
Canuck Place has seen a 28% increase in care provided in-home and virtually.
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Demand for pediatric palliative care consults
Community-based and in-hospital care consultations has seen a 131% increase.
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Why is Canuck Place providing pediatric palliative care?
Canuck Place is the only pediatric palliative care provider in BC and the Yukon. Without the Canuck Place program, there is no dedicated organization providing essential palliative care services for children and families.
According to PopDataBC, in any given year, 2,500 children in BC have a life-threatening condition, with a subset considered high-risk, with fragile and unstable conditions leading to unplanned hospitalization, ICU admission, and death. Canuck Place is currently providing care for 67% of the children in BC aged 0-19 who have life-threatening conditions, defined by an internationally used classification system. There is clearly a growing need for pediatric palliative care consultation and care across settings including tertiary (specialist) hospitals, community and regional hospitals, and for families in-home.
Goals of care for Canuck Place
Canuck Place is committed to providing high-quality pediatric palliative care that meets the needs of children and families; ongoing quality improvement; and innovation as a learning organization.
Canuck Place defines high-quality pediatric palliative care as that which improves quality of life, promotes comfort, and reduces suffering for children with life-threatening conditions (serious illness) and their families through a holistic approach that addresses physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs. It is collaborative, child and family-centred care, delivered using an interdisciplinary team-based approach throughout the continuum of care across all ages and stages of illness, including bereavement. Our care model values choice and honest and compassionate communication.
In 2023-24 Canuck Place is anticipating a 6-8% increase in the number of children and families referred to the program. With nursing/staff resources constrained by a flat funding agreement with the Province of BC, Canuck Place will need to raise additional funds to meet the needs of children and families who require palliative care, reflected in provincial health data (PopDataBC).
Key projects through 2024
Electronic Health Record System (EHR)
Patient safety, quality improvement, and efficiency are paramount at Canuck Place. The implementation of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system is underway to meet the needs of patients and families and a coordinated support of pediatric Advance Care Planning to ease the challenges of living with a complex illness. The EHR will ensure seamless and improved communication, safety, increase efficiencies, support clinicians, and foster continuity of care.
2024 key project
Accreditation Canada
Canuck Place will continue to validate commitment to quality and safety, and will participate and prepare for Accreditation Canada survey. Over the next two years (2025), Canuck Place will work on our third health accreditation, with Accreditation Canada. This organization inspires people around the world to improve outcomes through independent assessments against global standards. Accreditation Canada’s Qmentum accreditation program helps providers meet global standards, putting mechanisms in place that lead to safe and effective care. Help our small organization achieve excellence in quality, safety and care outcomes for children and families against 100 global standards that need to be met for accreditation.
2024 key project
Advance Care Planning (ACP)
Children with serious illness/life-threatening conditions live throughout BC and have many care providers involved in their care and may be seen by both local teams in the community and hospital, and specialist teams. Canuck Place is a small team in a large health care network. To meet the needs of children and families – the network needs support to improve communication and care.
Canuck Place clinicians are providing care coordination, advance care planning, and complex care consultations in-home and in-hospital. To improve care across the healthcare system, Canuck Place is working with BC health leaders to improve care for children and families through the Tiers of Service and pediatric Advance Care Planning – a collaboration between BCCH, CHBC, and Indigenous Health, Perinatal Services BC.
2024 key project
Family Engagement Framework
Canuck Place responds to the voices of our patient families, and collaborates on improving care by working directly with families. To give children and families in our care an even more powerful voice through co-creation of improved program services, Canuck Place is implementing a new Family Engagement Framework across the organization. The framework follows the IAP2 model, developed by the international association for public participation, and is comprised of five stages – Inform, Consult, Involve, Collaborate, and Empower. The vision for the framework is to ensure consistent, safe, and respectful engagement with children, youth, and families at Canuck Place, to fully represent the diverse perspectives and promote continual improvement of pediatric palliative care and services.
2024 key project