At Norburn Medical Centre, our staff can assist with Supportive Counselling and Palliative Care. Here is more about this area of medical services.

Caregiver Support: Talking About Advance Care Planning

Advance Care Planning is thinking about and writing down your wishes or instructions for present or future health care treatment if you become incapable of deciding for yourself. The Ministry of Health encourages all capable adults to do advance care planning.

For more information on advance care planning in British Columbia, including how to get started making a plan, answers to frequently asked questions, resources for planning, links to the No CPR Form and more, see Advance Care Planning.

Hospice Palliative Care

Hospice palliative care provides medical services, emotional support, and spiritual resources for people with illnesses that do not go away and often get worse with time; people may be in the late stages of an incurable illness, such as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. Hospice palliative care can also help family members manage the practical details, and emotional challenges of caring for a dying loved one.

The goal of hospice palliative care is to improve the quality of life—not just in the body but also in the mind and spirit.

Many people also combine hospice palliative care with other types of treatment. Hospice palliative care can help manage treatment’s symptoms, pain, or side effects. It can help people cope with their feelings about living with a chronic illness.

Hospice palliative care services are provided by a team of caregivers, including health professionals, volunteers, and spiritual advisors. Services typically include:

• Basic medical care with a focus on pain and symptom control.
• Access to a hospice team member 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Medical supplies and equipment, as needed.
• Counselling and social support. These services are available, as needed, for the person in hospice palliative care and anyone in his or her family.
• Guidance with the complex but standard issues of life completion and closure.
• A break (respite care) for caregivers, family, and others who regularly care for the person.
• Volunteer support, such as preparing meals or running errands.

Home & Community Care

Publicly subsidized home and community care services provide health care and support services for people with acute, chronic, palliative or rehabilitative healthcare needs.

These services are designed to complement and supplement, but not replace, your efforts to care for yourself with the assistance of your family, friends and community. Home and community care services provided through the health authorities can assist you on a short-term or long-term basis, depending upon your needs.

Publicly subsidized home and community care services:

• help you to remain independent and in your own home for as long as possible;
• provide care at home when you would otherwise require admission to hospital or would stay longer in hospital;
• provide assisted living and long-term care services if you can no longer be supported in your home; and
• support you and your family if you are nearing the end of your life at home, in an assisted living residence or a long-term care home, which includes hospice care.

Action Plan to Strengthen Home and Community Care for Seniors

Seniors deserve the freedom to make their own choices, to be independent for as long as possible, and to be surrounded by a supportive community. This plan focuses on actions over the next four years to improve seniors’ care and give them the best quality of life possible.