Pioneering a New Way Forward: Windsor – Essex County’s Compassionate Care Community

Unlike the UK and Western Europe where such initiatives have a long history the Compassionate Community movement in Canada is just beginning to blossom. In such a community people are motivated by compassion to take responsibility for and care for each other. From a palliative care perspective, a compassionate community recognizes the needs of those who are most vulnerable in our community especially those facing life-limiting illnesses, their caregivers and the bereaved. It aims to provide access to the many social aspects of care that are not provided by the health care system but which are central to the well-being of patients with advanced illness and their family / friend caregivers.

In past 2.5 years The Windsor Essex County Compassion Care Community in collaboration with The Hospice of Windsor Essex County has been working together with a unified vision to help people living in isolation (including people who are elderly, disabled, palliative and facing end of life issues) get the support and social connections to live well throughout their life span. This initiative is somewhat unique in that it has taken on a broader mandate recognizing that compassion is something we need not only in dealing with death and dying but in living life well throughout the journey. It seeks to increase the happiness and connectedness of everyone in the community, raise quality of life for citizens with life-long care needs, and to reduce the inequitable outcomes experienced by the most vulnerable. The purpose of this presentation is to share some of the current work being done in Windsor Essex County's using palliative care as a public health model and volunteers to achieve their goal of helping citizens live well until their death.