Palliative Care Everywhere: Strengthening Care Across Canada

National Hospice Palliative Care Week

National Hospice Palliative Care Week is a time to celebrate the incredible work being done to provide quality palliative care across the country. It is also a time to call for improved access to hospice palliative care—for every community, in every setting.

This year’s theme, “Palliative Care Everywhere,” is both a vision and a call to action.

Our recent article, Palliative Care Everywhere: Advancing Access, Equity, and Continuity in Canada, co-authored by the Canadian Home Care Association (CHCA) and the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA), explores what this theme means for Canada’s health system—and what must change to make it a reality. In this blog, we highlight key insights from that work, with a particular focus on the critical role of home and community care.

Access to Palliative Care

Access to high-quality palliative care should not depend on where you live, your diagnosis, or your circumstances. Care should follow the person—not the system.

But that is not the reality today.

Across Canada, too many people still receive palliative care too late—or not at all. Access remains uneven, particularly in rural and remote communities and among underserved populations. These gaps contribute to unmanaged symptoms, avoidable hospitalizations, and increased strain on families and caregivers.

If we are serious about achieving “Palliative Care Everywhere,” we must act now.

Home Care Is Central to the Solution

For many Canadians, home is where they want to be—and receive care—especially at the end of life.

Home-based palliative care makes this possible, allowing people to remain in familiar surroundings, close to loved ones, and more actively involved in their care decisions. People receiving palliative care at home are often identified earlier in their illness, which can also mean they live longer following that identification. It also supports a more sustainable health system by reducing unnecessary hospital use.

Yet too often, people are transferred to hospital near the end of life—not by choice, but because the right supports are not available at home.

This is the gap we must close.

Why This Matters Now—and What Must Change

Demand for palliative care is growing, but the system is not keeping pace.

Without action, more Canadians will continue to face barriers to care. Families will continue to carry heavy caregiving responsibilities without sufficient support. And health systems will remain under pressure from avoidable hospital use.

Achieving “Palliative Care Everywhere” requires coordinated, system-wide action:

• Strengthen home and community care to ensure reliable access where people live
• Improve continuity of care so that services and supports follow people seamlessly across settings and transitions.
• Support caregivers through training, respite care, and mental health resources
• Integrate a palliative approach earlier—not only at end of life—across all care settings
• Equip providers with the skills, confidence, and tools to deliver high-quality palliative care
• Address inequities so that access is consistent across all communities and populations

This is not the responsibility of one sector alone. It requires collaboration across governments, health systems, providers, organizations, and communities.

From Vision to Action

“Palliative Care Everywhere” calls for action across sectors to strengthen access, advance equity, and ensure that every person in Canada can receive compassionate, high-quality palliative care in the setting of their choice.

Expanding and strengthening home and community-based palliative care is essential to making this vision a reality.

With coordinated action across systems, providers, and communities, we can move from aspiration to consistent, equitable palliative care for all.

The time to act is now.

We encourage you to read and share Palliative Care Everywhere: Advancing Access, Equity, and Continuity in Canada, and to take time this week to reflect on what this theme means to you—and how we can work together to bring it into reality.