Description:

Everyone who dies has a right to access high quality palliative care as a human right, yet inequity is built into palliative care as a system. We all know the statistics: just 1 in 6 Canadians receives home palliative care at end-of-life. In a world driven by inequity, the practice of palliative medicine should be considered social justice work. Yet, palliative care physicians commonly have little understanding, training or exposure to this. Working in a world driven by inequity, palliative care physicians must expand the scope of their relationship with patients with life-limiting illness as beyond the purely clinical. Consideration should be provided to the social causes of suffering at the level of the individual (micro level) and beyond. Our gaze must extend from our patients and their families to their neighbourhood and community (meso level) and to the society in which we all live (macro level). This workshop will examine relevant literature and discuss important concepts such as social justice and social accountability from a palliative care perspective. Through discussion and real life examples, we will discuss the meaning of socially accountable practice and real life macro-level advocacy, and the importance of putting an equity, diversity and inclusion lens on all our work. Practical tools, along with real life examples, will be shared to guide advocacy and inspire attendees. We will also provide a critical analysis of the current state of advocacy in palliative care in Canada.

Presenter(s):     Dr. Amit Arya & Dr. Naheed Donsani