Facilities in new Quebec end-of-life care home highlight growing demand for MAID

A new $8M palliative care centre in Lanaudière reflects Quebec's growing need for end-of-life care and MAID, now involved in over 12% of deaths in the region.

In nearly 30 years as a palliative care physician, Dr. Nathalie Allard has provided end-of-life care in busy hospital hallways, and consulted with families with only a curtain separating them from sick people screaming or vomiting on the other side.

On Thursday, she attended the opening of a brand-new palliative care facility northeast of Montreal that represents the kind of place where she wants to work and, one day, to die.

“It’s my workplace — and my final resting place, probably,” she said cheerfully while giving a tour. “Me, I’m going to die.”

Located in St-Charles-Borromée in the Lanaudière region, the $8 million facility has 10 rooms for palliative care patients near the end of their lives, as well as outpatient services to help people with terminal diagnoses live more comfortably. It also has a dedicated unit for medical assistance in dying, with room that families of up to 20 can book for a loved one’s last moments.

Health care providers say the space meets a growing need for end-of-life services including MAID, which is involved in more than one out of ten deaths in Lanaudière.

Held under a white tent with speeches, cocktails and artfully scattered flowers on the ground, the launch event felt more like party than a building opening.

While Allard focuses on palliative and doesn’t perform MAID herself, she says the end of a life, including doctor-assisted death, can be a celebration too.

“We celebrate weddings, we prepare for a wedding,” she said. “I won’t disappoint you, but we’re all going to die. So why not prepare for this great moment and celebrate this great moment which is our death?”