A new workshop that will generate a discussion on how to improve palliative care in rural Alberta communities is coming to Red Deer.
The first-ever Palliative Care Rural Roadshow will stop in the city on Thursday and presents an environment for patients, their families and professionals to share compassionate care needs and expectations.
“We really want people with end-of-life issues to attend,” said Sharon Barrette, executive director of the Alberta Hospice Palliative Care Association. “We need the whole spectrum of people to make this an effective workshop.
“A patient could expect that they’ll be heard and, because of what they have to say, their care will improve.”
The AHPCA teamed up with the Alberta Coalition for Quality End-of-Life Care Association to sponsor the workshop that will educate smaller centres on ways to better palliative care.
“Over the next 10 years, the number of people dying in Alberta is going to double,” Barrette said.
“We had better have a plan in all our communities because there are going to be a lot more people to care for in a short period of time.”
The open dialogue initiated at the workshop will provide insight into how all parties can work together to enhance palliative care programs in rural communities, which Barrette said face additional issues that are not common in larger cities.
These issues include: patients not knowing what care options are available to them and what level of care they have the right to; health care providers in smaller centres tend to be generalists instead of specialists; and often the community is without a hospice.
Red Deer is the exception to the latter as the Red Deer Hospice opened in the fall of 2005.
The 24-hour care centre is part of the local continuum that tends to residents nearing the end of their life. There is also a palliative care unit at the hospital that offers acute care and palliative nurses who tend to people still living at home.
Red Deer Hospice will host the roadshow that is centred around the notion of working together.
“The biggest thing that’s going to come out of this workshop is conversation,” said Brenda Watts, executive director of Red Deer Hospice.
“Often people don’t want to talk about death. We’re a death avoiding society. But here’s an open opportunity to talk about end-of-life care, death and dying.”
Red Deer is one of six stops the Palliative Care Rural Roadshow will make across the province.
Everyone is invited to attend the workshop, which will be held at Westerner Park’s Chalet on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tickets are $25 for the general public and $65 for Alberta Hospice Palliative Care Association members, who can receive continuing education credits for attending the event. Subsidies are available and pre-registration is required.
For more information or to register, call the Red Deer Hospice at 403-309-4344 or go online to www.ahpca.ca
Barrette said the organizations have budgeted to take the event out on the road again next year but are not yet sure what communities they will be visiting.
ptrotter@www.reddeeradvocate.com