News release: Currently only 16 to 30% of Canadians have access to quality palliative and end-of-life services, however Pallium Canada’s LEAP Facilitator program is working to change that by providing specialized training to front line care providers in the North East region.
On March 9 and 10, Pallium Canada in partnership with the North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN), hosted two Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative and End-of-Life Care (LEAP) Facilitator Training courses in Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury. The North East LHIN funded the courses and helped coordinate their delivery which was open to local palliative care experts across the region.
The courses were attended by a dynamic mix of local inter-professional healthcare experts, including physicians, nurses and social workers – effectively tripling the number of trained facilitators available across the region.
Formally certified LEAP Facilitators can teach Pallium Canada’s suite of evidence-based palliative care education to others inter-professional healthcare providers.
“As a LHIN we are working to ensure Northerners have options to access quality palliative care services in their communities,” said Louise Paquette, CEO of the North East LHIN. “These LEAP sessions build capacity within communities of care across the North East. With triple the number of facilitators, more palliative care training can continue to be delivered to frontline workers. In fact, they’ve already started training others.”
After receiving their training, these new facilitators then helped to deliver LEAP courses in Timmins, Sudbury, Manitoulin Island and Sault Ste. Marie over the weekend of March 12 and 13, training another 100 Northerners. These 100 frontline workers learned essential palliative principles including pain management, delirium, psychosocial and spiritual care, as well as other topics.
"It was exciting to see the expertise of those in attendance and their passion to educate others in order to build palliative care capacity across the North,” said Dr. Lori Teeple, Pallium Canada's Facilitator Trainer who led the courses.
