A partnership between UVic, Victoria Cool Aid Society, Island Health, and Victoria Hospice, Dr. Stajduhar and team are evaluating the PORT service delivery model and working with inner city organizations, workers, and street family to bring awareness to death & dying in the broader community.

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Study Description

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Current palliative care services are not well equipped or designed for adults with complex service needs and who are vulnerably housed, living in shelters or in parks or streets. Through our previous CIHR & CCSRI funded research, Cool Aid Community Health Centre received funding from Saint Elizabeth Foundation for PORT clinical resources (physician and nurse coordinator) to improve care at end-of-life for people experiencing structural vulnerability. Alongside this clinical service, we have been funded by the Vancouver Foundation to conduct Participatory Action Research to develop, implement, and evaluate PORT and figure out the best ways to integrate palliative approaches to care in inner-city settings.

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Objectives

 

1. Create Action Teams to support the development, implementation and evaluation of PORT clinical services, and broader awareness of death and dying in the inner city. These action teams include (a) Decision-makers and planners; (b) Social care workers (housing/shelter, outreach, and peer workers); (c) Street family and family caregivers; and (d) The ePAC Crew – people who are volunteering their time to support PORT and ePAC.

2. Co-design and produce a toolkit of accessible resources to support the integration of palliative approaches to care, adapted to the inner city population. 

3. Facilitate community events to create awareness of death and dying, to share emerging findings and provide forums for community dialogue.