The Law 2 on Palliative and End-of-life Care in Quebec: Getting a Grip on the Challenges associated with Providing Quality of Care to English-speaking Population

Even after the adoption of Bill 2 in Quebec and Bill C-14 in Canada, only very limited efforts were made to adequately educate civil society on these matters. Furthermore, unlike the cannabis law where there was widespread media attention to the multiple issues at stake, the media coverage of Bill 2 has largely focused on medical assistance in dying. This has overshadowed the importance of palliative care. In fact, Bill 2 has led to misrepresentations about the continuum of palliative care services and its access. While Bill 2 in Quebec and Bill C-14 in Canada are available in both official languages and despite selected associated activities to inform civil society in both languages over the past three years, investigator’s field experience and that of expert colleagues reveal that English-speaking health care professionals, caregivers, volunteers, patients, and the population in general do not have ready access to the information.

The present research proposes: 1) Integrative scoping review of best practices related to knowledge translation, literacy and capacity building of frontline health care providers, as well as to reach out to members in reference to chronic and palliative care (year 1); 2) Four focus groups with health care professionals involved in Chronic and Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care at the CIUSSS Centre Sud de l’Île de Montréal and CIUSSS Centre Ouest de l’Île de Montréal. 3a) Five individual interviews with heath care providers involved in Chronic and Palliative Care and End- of-Life Care. Also researchers will develop and pilot-test throughout the focus groups and individual interviews, an easy readily available and accessible training program in English for palliative health care providers, namely physicians, nurses, advanced practice nurses (infirmières de pratique spécialisée (IPS), social workers, field-based nurses and physicians (non-governmental organisations) with adapted support documents in English. 3b) Five individual interviews with experts involved in Chronic and Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care are planned (year 2). Also researchers will develop and validate an interview guide with supporting documents that promote a better understanding of the four components of Bill 2, palliative care resources in English and how to access them; participatory approaches, knowledge exchange and knowledge transfer workshops will be proposed for this purpose.

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Outputs:

1. Vissandjée, B., Fernandez, I., Durivage, P., Freitas, Z., Savignac, P., & Van Pevenage, I. (2021). COVID-19, promotion and provision of palliative care: reaching out, accounting for linguistic diversity. Global health promotion, 28(2), 87–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975921989995

2. Lapierre J, Croteau S, Gagnon M-P, et al. Télésanté en contexte de pandémie et de déconfinement : pratiques infirmières innovantes et partenariats pour des communautés équitables, sécuritaires et durables. Global Health Promotion. 2021;28(1):89-97. doi:10.1177/1757975920980720

3. Unknown. (2020, 6 Februrary). Maîtriser la loi 2 sur les soins palliatifs et de fin de vie au Québec : les défis des proches aidants anglophones avec une littératie de santé faible. 6th International REIACTIS Conference ‘‘Inclusive Society and Aging’’, Metz, France.

4. Fernandez, I. Des soins palliatifs équitables et de qualité : intervenir selon une sensibilité aux diversités linguistiques et aux trajectoires d’immigration. En ligne [Zoom]. Colloque étudiant et jeunes chercheur.es SHERPA/CREDEF. 4 juin 2021.