An overwhelming 90 per cent of more than 1,600 Canadians surveyed declared the citizens of this land should have a right to “universally accessible and funded high-quality palliative care.”

However, the new study, jointly released by Angus Reid, Cardus and Palliative institutes, also highlighted participants’ concerns about the health-care system’s ability to deliver this service. Additionally, it revealed that a significant majority of the general public believe various misconceptions about palliative care.

Rebecca Vachon, the director of Cardus’ health program, told The Catholic Register that before respondents received a full definition of palliative care and the survey’s core questions, they were presented with a series of knowledge-testing true-or-false statements.

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More than 50 per cent correctly assessed eight of the 13 statements. The other five saw the majority provide an inaccurate response.

“Thankfully, a majority of Canadians recognize that palliative care is not just for cancer patients, for instance,” said Vachon. “That can be a misconception, but many Canadians understood it was not just for cancer. But still, you had many Canadians who misunderstood palliative care as comfort care, only for the end of life or hospice, as opposed to what palliative care should be: introduced at the point of diagnosis of a serious illness."

According to the survey, 64 per cent of participants expressed a belief in the incorrect statement that palliative care provides comfort care for those at the end of life.

A minority of respondents correctly recognized the goals of palliative care to help bolster a patient’s ability to tackle daily activities (32 per cent), address psychological issues borne by serious illness (38 per cent), better explain treatment options (45 per cent) and tackle stress from serious illness (47 per cent).

Overall, 64 per cent of Canadians correctly answered at least half of the statements about palliative care, while 36 per cent replied to half or more of them incorrectly.

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Vachon said Cardus and other entities with expertise about this issue — the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, for example — should be empowered to use these findings to address the common misunderstandings. She suggested Cardus will present this data in discussions with policymakers in an effort to rekindle a federal commitment to better educating the public.

“There was, for instance, an (Action Plan on Palliative Care) developed by Health Canada that for over five years, was trying to address some of the significant gaps and improve education,” said Vachon. "That was (introduced) in 2019, though. Now, we're definitely (more than) five years on, and there's still a lot more work to do, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of energy from policymakers to continue moving forward in this area. Hopefully, by bringing this study to their attention, we can reinvigorate some of that engagement among policymakers.”

Of the 777 survey participants with a family member or close friend who received palliative care, 58 per cent stated it was a very positive or positive experience. Twenty-two per cent appraised the treatment as “neither positive nor negative,” while 11 per cent answered “not sure/can’t say.” Just seven per cent classified this type of care as negative or very negative.

Propelling, in part, the 90-per-cent declaration that all citizens should enjoy “universally accessible and funded” palliative care is that one-in-five respondents said their loved one found it difficult or very difficult to access this supportive treatment.

While 81 per cent would consider palliative care if they became seriously ill, almost three in 10 Canadians (29 per cent) are not confident that it will be available to them. The level of non-confidence eclipses 30 per cent among male participants aged 18-34 (37 per cent) and 35-54 (32 per cent), along with females aged 35-54 (32 per cent).

Zooming in on Canadians’ major concerns about palliative care, 58 per cent believe there is a lack of palliative care beds in general. Fifty-four per cent expressed concern that residents in all provinces and territories don’t have the same level of access to beds, and 53 per cent indicated their worry over the availability of beds in rural areas.  

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As for the elements of this holistic aid deemed most important, the utmost priority for 71 per cent of those surveyed is “access to in-home support and palliative care services to remain at home as long as possible.” Nearly half (46 per cent) emphasized the need for timely admission to hospice care once staying at home is no longer a viable option. And 39 per cent accentuated the need for care “that addresses the patient’s needs beyond medical/physical, but also psychological, spiritual, etc.”

Visit cardus.ca to review the entire poll.