This outreach program in Thunder Bay, Ont., aims to help homeless people with life-limiting illnesses
CBC
As an outreach worker helping people with life-limiting illnesses in Thunder Bay, Ont., Julie Diner says she doesn't spend much time in the office.
"Some days, I'm taking clients to the cancer clinic for chemotherapy. Other days, I'm at tent city looking for a client, so that I can let them know their ID came in," she said. "Or maybe I'm delivering some toilet paper to someone in need; my days are all over the place."
Diner is the only outreach worker with the Palliative Advocacy and Care Team (PACT). The program is led by Hospice Northwest and NorWest Community Health Centres (NWCHC) in partnership with several other organizations.
Those involved conduct virtual rounds with vulnerably-housed clients to assess their needs for health care and social services. Diner's job is to make sure they get from Point A to Point B and provide support along the way.
As someone in recovery from alcoholism and addiction who was formerly homeless herself, Diner said her lived experience helps her connect with clients.
She remembers living at Shelter House when she needed to have her gallbladder removed. Complications resulted in it being a major surgery.
"Trying to cope with that and [an] infection while living at the Shelter House was very intense, in pain, all the things that you can imagine," she said.
"I understand what it's like to live on a mat at the shelter. I understand what it's like to live in a tent down by the river … those experiences help me build relationships and build trust."
PACT receives funding from NWCHC as well as Healthcare Excellence Canada, a not-for-profit charity primarily funded by Health Canada. There are currently between 35 and 40 clients.
However, the money from Healthcare Excellence Canada is a pilot project that's expected to end soon, which means the team is seeking alternative options to keep the program going, with hopes of expanding it further.
Donna Jeanpierre is executive director of Hospice Northwest. She says PACT was formed in 2019, following the release of a needs assessment by Dilico Anishinabek Family Care the year before called Palliative Care for Vulnerable and Underserved Populations.
Following that, as well as a visit from palliative care physician and health justice activist Dr. Naheed Dosani of Toronto, local organizations began to look into how to address the gaps for those struggling to access palliative or end of life care, Jeanpierre explained.
"Dr. Naheed Dosani did say homelessness is a life-limiting illness and homelessness is a terminal diagnosis," said Jeanpierre. "That can make it challenging to follow through with appointments or have access to transportation to get to appointments — even having a phone to confirm an appointment."
At least 550 people are known to be experiencing homelessness in Thunder Bay, according to the latest point-in-time count done in the fall. About 37 per cent of those surveyed said they were experiencing an illness or medical condition, while more than half reported being treated unfairly in a health-care setting.
The B.C. government has raised the ceiling to $75,000 for potential damages over intimate-image abuse.
A man was found dead inside a house on Elm Street in Niagara Falls after it caught fire on Wednesday night, police say.
It’s been eight days since Suncor’s Sarnia refinery reported an oil spill into the St. Clair River, and it remains unclear what caused the pipeline leak, how much got into the water — and where cleanup efforts are at.
A joint operation involving Edmonton police has led to the deportation of two men, over what police say is a wave of extortions targeting the city's South Asian community.
Red Lake is hoping a petition will help it land federal funding for a new arena.
An N.W.T. MLA says the territory needs to fiercely protect treaty rights and territorial waters, amid Alberta’s merger of two major river basins, and the proposed treatment and release of oilsands tailings into the environment.
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear arguments against the Liberal government's deeply controversial decision to outlaw certain firearms.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is rejecting Opposition accusations of entitlement for using a private jet last fall courtesy of the Saudi government.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s department of Transportation and Infrastructure is promising policy changes after a Conception Bay South family spoke out about the expropriation and resale of the land where their home once stood.
Nova Scotia’s seniors and long-term care minister is calling on administrators at nursing homes to make direct appeals to their employees amidst protracted contract talks with the union representing workers at more than 50 sites.
A pair of Saint John poverty researchers have told N.B. Power's rate hearing that rising electricity prices are a serious affordability problem for low-income households and the utility or provincial government should match programs in place elsewhere that would help.
Lawyers for a man acquitted in a high-profile Toronto murder trial where a police officer was killed are holding a news conference Thursday to address a recent Ontario Provincial Police report that re-examines evidence from the trial.
Quebec provincial police arrested two men after a suspicious package grounded flights headed to Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport on Wednesday.