St. Raphael’s is a non-profit community organization that carries out its mandate by offering a 12-bed palliative care home and a Day Centre with multidisciplinary service. Ever since the Day Centre opened a year ago, there has been continual effort to advocate for palliative care and to create an innovative, flexible program that truly meets the needs of the community, including both people living with terminal disease and their caregivers.
“Our most important mandate at St. Raphael’s is really to demystify palliative care, and death and dying, that’s our goal. We want to work with our community partners to get those conversations initiated. Dying is part of living and we are so scared of talking about dying and maybe if we were better prepared, maybe we wouldn’t be so scared. So that’s our number one goal- to be creative, innovative and accessible.”
Special effort is being made to reach out to patients at home who would benefit from early palliative care, defined as those with a terminal (incurable) illness and a prognosis of at least 3 months and up to several years.
Typically, patients attend the Day Centre for a half day or by appointment, one day per week. In the near future, specific days will be assigned for patients with cancer, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), lung diseases such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and cardiac disease.
According to St. Raphael’s Director Veronique Després, the Day Centre, “welcomes anyone who is coping with an illness that cannot be cured, so oncology comes to mind, but it can also be other illnesses such as ALS, or advanced cardiac disease. These people are still functional. They are living at home and might have 2 or 3 years to live. They often face challenges dealing with symptoms and side effects, and may have difficulty managing professionally or in the family. Some of our patients who come to the day centre are still working, such as stage IV breast cancer patients. So we include these people but we do not exclude those who are more advanced in their illness.”
Després explains that early palliative care can bring concrete benefits to people with terminal illnesses and their caregivers alike. These benefits range from filling out insurance forms or obtaining financial assistance, and counselling services for individual, couples or families (with the social worker). In addition, patients and caregivers can choose from a range of complementary services such as music, art and massage therapy. Some new services such as acupuncture, meals (available in the Centre or delivered to home), as well as the chance for a virtual reality experience and virtual session with the team members have been developed in response to the challenges that have arisen as a result of the pandemic. An iPad is also available to support technological needs of the guests.
St. Raphael’s is also offering a therapeutic bath at the Day Centre. “We have a therapeutic bath which has been decorated so it feels like you are in a spa. The bath is really great for people who are in pain, and those with lymphedema. For those who can only do sponge baths at home because they can’t get in their bath or shower, the bath is adapted for them.”
In addition to the benefits of the services offered, the Day Centre offers people living with terminal illness and the their caregivers a chance to access a caring community where people can connect with others, 
break social isolation and obtain respite care.
Caregivers have the option to attend the Day Centre with their loved one or on a designated caregiver day (a volunteer can stay with the patient on site). Bereavement counselling is also available to caregivers.
Stephane Plante credits St. Raphael’s for providing much needed support to his father at the end of his life, and to himself. “I was a caregiver for my father. We started with the day centre a few weeks before my father entered the hospice for good. It was very good for him and me. For him, it was good to socialize and to receive massage, music therapy and other activities. It was good for his mental health to see other people. The people at St. Raphael cared for him. And for me, it was a kind a break. I could see that my father was very well taken care of. It was very difficult to take care of my father at home and the Day Centre made it a lot of easier.”
Stay tuned for open house events at St. Raphael’s once the pandemic resolves, but in the meantime services at the Palliative care hospice and Day Centre are available, free-of-charge and easy to access (no referral required).
Information/access to services: veroniquedespres [at] maisonstraphael.org, or, visit the website, download and mail the application form:
https://maisonstraphael.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/admissionform_fr.pdf