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ECHO Home-Based Palliative Care Community Hub

All Teach, All Learn

Bridging the Knowledge Gap in Home-Based Palliative Care

Welcome to the CHCA Project ECHO Home-Based Palliative Care Community Hub

Browse this repository to access resources and tools that support your continuous learning and development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes for providing high-quality home-based palliative care. Access content from specialists and subject matter experts, along with select research articles and practical tools, to enhance and apply your learning.

2024 Theme: Unpacking the Principles of a Palliative Approach to Care

The Philosophy of Palliative Care and a Palliative Approach (April 2024)

The principles of a palliative approach to care focus on living well from the time of diagnosis up until death with an emphasis on a person’s and family’s goals, values and beliefs, and maximizing quality of life. This includes the proactive assessment and management of a person’s current and future physiological, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual needs. Holistic and person-centred palliative care requires effective communication and decision-making, along with input from an interdisciplinary team.

The Philosophy of Palliative Care and a Palliative Approach: Experts Nadine Valk and Deborah Francis led a 60-minute session exploring holistic, person-centered care. They covered early integration, team-based approaches, pain management, psychological support, and cultural sensitivity for compassionate, comprehensive palliative care. Watch video

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Essential Skills for Palliative Care

Evolving Care: Virtual Skills and Strategies

The use of virtual technologies in home care is helping to increase access to palliative and end-of-life support in urban, rural, and remote homes across the country. For providers, virtual care offers an ideal way to balance the enormous demands for specialized palliative care and the limited number of skilled teams. For the 80% of individuals who wish to remain at home, virtual opportunities need to complement and not replace in-person care by offering convenience and the ability to address the challenges of managing advanced illness at home in a timely manner.

This Palliative Care ECHO session will highlight the Canadian Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Competency Framework domain of Virtual Care and share the findings and recommendations of a national study exploring the experiences of patients, families, and healthcare providers with virtual care.

This ECHO session focuses on the “Virtual Care” domain of the Competency Framework, highlighting the essential skills for palliative care providers in adapting to virtual technologies for better access in both urban and rural settings. Participants learn a national study on virtual care experiences and assess their own readiness through an interactive quiz on virtual care competencies. WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Essential Skills for Palliative Care

Care Planning and Collaborative Practice: Bridging the Transition Gap

Care transitions are crucial in a patient’s journey, requiring careful planning and teamwork. These transitions often involve new teams, treatments, and a shift from clinical settings to the patient’s home, especially challenging for palliative care patients. Effective discharge planning necessitates collaboration among care teams, patients, and families to ensure safe, effective, and sustainable home care, considering both current needs and future health deterioration.
This CHCA Palliative Care ECHO learning session profiles a robust framework developed by the McGill University Health Centre and its partners which purposefully guides discharge care planning from hospital to home and can be easily adapted and applied to transition planning for individuals receiving home-based palliative care.

This ECHO learning session discusses the elements of holistic and collaborative discharge and transition planning for children with medical complexity, with broad application to the care and planning for persons transitioning to home-based palliative care.  WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Essential Skills for Palliative Care

Communication: Engaging Children and Families in Serious Illness Conversations

Conversations with families exploring values, goals of care, and priorities are an essential element of high-quality care for children with serious illnesses. It is important for health care professionals to develop effective communication skills, so they can discuss serious illness and care with children and their family, especially when a goal of care is to remain at home. The Serious Illness Conversation Guide – PED is an adapted guide which integrates the unique needs of children and focuses on challenging situations, collaborating with parents, and interacting with multiple health care teams. This ECHO learning session will introduce participants to the use of a communication resource with will help home care providers better align the care they provide with what is most important to the families they care for.

This ECHO learning session discusses the unique needs of children and their families when receiving palliative care and explores challenging situations, approaches to collaborating with parents and family members and how to interact and communicate with multiple disciplinary health care teams.   WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Essential Skills for Palliative Care

Self-Care: Caring for Yourself When You Care for Others

Helping patients and families through their darkest of days can cause home care staff to struggle. Continued exposure to loss, pain and suffering can lead to compassion fatigue (CF). Those experiencing CF become physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted. Self-care is an essential skill for all home care providers so they can maintain balance, protect their mental and physical selves, create professional boundaries and remain energized to provide compassion, support and care to the people and families in the home and community setting.

This ECHO session discusses the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue for home health care staff and organizations, and practices which can be implemented to mitigate and combat compassion fatigue.   WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Essential Skills for Palliative Care

Cultural Safety and Humility: Creating Safe Spaces for People with Life Limiting Illness

Everyone receiving palliative and end of life care deserves to feel equal, respected and to have their unique culture, history and identity honoured. Cultural safety is built on a foundation of seeking to understand and address power differentials and inequities in the social, political, and historical context of healthcare.

This ECHO session discusses the principles that home and community-based palliative programs  and providers need to consider to embed cultural safety and humility in the care they provide.  WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home

Be Prepared: Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home-BLEEDING

Catastrophic bleeding is a palliative care emergency which occurs in patients with cancerous and non-cancerous diagnoses. This ECHO session identifies patients at risk for a catastrophic bleed and the measures which can be put in place in the home to help manage bleeding and comfort and prepare patients and their caregivers.

This CHCA Palliative Care ECHO session provides an overview of spinal cord compression and superior vena cava syndrome, symptoms and assessments, and includes a discussion of approaches to treating and supporting patients and their caregivers.  WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home

Be Prepared: Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home-BLOCKAGES

Advanced illness can result in painful and distressing blockages within the body’s systems. This ECHO learning session addresses blockages frequently seen with clients receiving home-based palliative care:  spinal cord compression and super vena cava obstruction. Participants will learn to recognize the signs and symptoms and how to support patients and their caregivers with appropriate interventions guided by a person’s goals of care.

This CHCA Palliative Care ECHO session provides an overview of catastrophic bleeding experienced among people receiving palliative care supports in the home.  Symptoms, assessments and a discussion of approaches to treating and supporting patients and their caregivers is the focus of this recorded session.  WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home

Be Prepared: Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home-BALANCE

General weakness, nausea and vomiting and delirium are the range of symptoms patients may experience when blood calcium levels are out of balance. Hypercalcemia (elevated calcium levels) is a common emergency in palliative care. Which patients may be at risk? What can be done to help manage hypercalcemia in the home? Find the answers in this hour long CHCA Palliative Care ECHO learning session.

This CHCA Palliative Care ECHO session provides an overview of hypercalcemia, its symptoms and assessments, and includes a discussion of approaches to treating and supporting patients and their caregivers.  WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Series Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home

Be Prepared: Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home-BREATHING

The struggle to breathe can be terrifying for patients and their caregivers. Health care providers must be aware of high-risk patients and know how to recognize the signs and symptoms of dyspnea, how to plan for care and prepare patients and their caregivers for emergencies.

Learn about the factors which can contribute to dyspnea and a discussion of strategies to anticipate, identify and manage dyspnea while providing support for the patient and their caregivers when a breathlessness occurs.   WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Session (February 24, 2022)

Guiding Conversations with Patients and Caregivers: Using Emotional Intelligence Skills

The Caregiver Declaration of Rights for Hospice Palliative and End-of-Life Care is a framework to empower caregivers clarify expectations and accountability for all members of the patients’ circle of care. Through the caregiver experience, learn how health care providers can become better Listeners and reinforce caregiver rights.

Applying the Emotional Intelligence skill of Listening is an effective way to embed principles of the Caregiver Declaration of Rights for Hospice Palliative and End of Life Care into care conversations, with commentary from invited caregivers Lester and Daniel. WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Session Pain and Symptom Management at Home

Pain and Symptom Management at Home: Managing Emergencies

Emergencies among patients receiving palliative care in the home can be expected.  Learn expert approaches and recommendations to guide management plans to support patients and their families during a palliative emergency.

Practical guidance from palliative care physician Dr. Cornelius Woelk and palliative consultant nurse practitioner Melanie Spencley on how to plan for and manage palliative care emergencies in the home. WATCH VIDEO

CHCA ECHO Learning Session Pain and Symptom Management at Home

Pain and Symptom Management at Home: Whole Community Palliative Rounds (WCPR)

A proven model of interdisciplinary communication, rapid clinical problem-solving and decision-making to reduce symptom burden in high-risk individuals receiving palliative care at home.

Recording of ECHO presentation on using WCPR in New Brunswick and British Columbia.  WATCH VIDEO 

CHCA Project ECHO Home-Based Palliative Care Integrated Seniors Care Innovation (Coming Soon)

Established in 1990, the Canadian Home Care Association (CHCA) is a national non-profit membership association dedicated to advancing excellence in home and community care.

National Office: 905-567-7373     |    General Inquiries: chca@cdnhomecare.ca

2000 Argentia Road, Plaza 3, Suite 302. Mississauga, Ontario, L5N 1W1

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This post is also available in: French