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Palliative Care Clinical Resources

Palliative Care Integration Project

The Palliative Care Integration Project (PCIP) was initiated in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) area of Southeastern Ontario in January 2001 to promote the integration of efficient, high quality care delivery to palliative patients and their families.

Definition of Palliative Care used by PCIP

The definition of palliative care used by the Palliative Care Integration Project (PCIP) is the following one endorsed by the World Health Organization:

"Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual."

Palliative care:

  • provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
  • affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
  • intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
  • integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
  • offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
  • offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement;
  • uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
  • will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
  • is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.

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PCIP Vision

The Palliative Care Integration Project (PCIP) aims to:

  • empower patients and families;
  • educate and empower health professionals;
  • improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

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PCIP Objectives

The objectives of the Palliative Care Integration Project (PCIP) are to:

  • facilitate easy, uncomplicated access to palliative care;
  • increase the use of validated assessment tools;
  • increase the use of evidence-based practice;
  • improve symptom management;
  • improve patient and family satisfaction with care delivery;
  • decrease the number of emergency department visits and hospital admissions;
  • increase the number of home (versus hospital) deaths when desired by the patient/family and if adequate support is available.

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PCIP Tools and Resources

The PCIP Tools and Resources are:

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History of the Project

The development of the Palliative Care Integration Project (PCIP) the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) area of South East Ontario was accomplished entirely with in-kind support. Funding was received from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation to evaluate the Project.

Funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care was received in 2004 to support the implementation and development of the PCIP in KFL&A and the roll-out to the adjacent counties of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville, Hastings and Prince Edward.

There has been a great deal of interest provincially, nationally and internationally in the PCIP and the resource materials have been widely distributed.

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Learn more about the Palliative Care Integration Project

To learn more about the Palliative Care Integration Project (PCIP), visit the PCIP web site at:

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