Commentary
We all have our time someday. What most of us tend to worry about is the circumstances—will we suffer? For how long?
One of the chief ways our medical system works to alleviate the suffering of those who are dying is through palliative care. Earlier in May, new polling was released by the Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with Cardus and the Palliative Institute, which reveals how Canadians understand palliative care and whether they want to see it improved.
Despite the fact that everyone dies, and despite the fact that something like 180,000 Canadians and their families interact with some form of end-of-life care in a year, I keep confronting the perception that palliative care is a niche issue, not one of broad interest. But this reaction only underscores the poll’s findings: namely that many Canadians continue to misunderstand what palliative care is and isn’t. On a more positive note, however, when Canadians do understand it, palliative care is, in fact, identified as a priority issue….