By the time WHO declared a global pandemic on March 11, the health care community had already been on alert, prepping to meet the challenge of a once-in-a-century epidemiological event. The coming months would be anything but business as usual, and the stakeholder groups of the BCCPC—health care professionals, community organizations and individuals and families—would need information resources that were easy to find, easy to understand, comprehensive and dynamic enough to respond to a rapidly changing landscape.
For many in the general public, as well as hospice and community support organizations, COVID-19 brought Advance Care Planning (ACP) from the back burner right to the front; all of a sudden, thinking, talking and planning for future health care needs became a real priority, rather than a “some day” intellectual exercise.
BCCPC supporting health care professionals
Feedback from the frontline
Health care professionals – no matter what the discipline – have been impacted by the pandemic like no other group. To find out how we could best serve this group, we convened online consultations with palliative care educators and leaders, and health authority leads in palliative care and ACP talking specifically about serious illness conversations (SIC).
Creating, compiling and collaborating
As an information-based organization, BCCPC had lots of resources to offer, and strong partnerships to leverage to provide health care professionals with a comprehensive, easy-to-access library of newly developed and newly adapted COVID resources.
BCCPC created:
• A database of compiled resources and educational events
• “5 facts about working in health care during COVID” video
• Inter-professional COVID-Palliative Core Competencies Self-Assessment Tool for Generalists
• Online hub for COVID-adapted Serious Illness Conversations resources
And leveraged their relationships with other organizations to:
• Develop COVID-adapted symptoms guidelines, in partnership with Fraser Health Authority, which was cited in CMAJ: Pandemic palliative care: beyond ventilators and saving lives
• Share COVID resources for physicians for posting on the UBC Palliative COVID website
• Deliver several just-in-time online educational sessions about COVID Serious Illness Conversations
• Presented to several nation-wide COVID-related webinars, at the invitation of Pallium)
BCCPC supporting communities
Set the direction
The first step to creating a truly useful suite of resources for everyone was to invite community-based organizations from around BC to share their experiences with the interruption of services and other challenges imposed by COVID-19. On April 8, representatives from 20 organizations (65% from hospice societies) took part in a wide-ranging discussion about:
• Needs related to compassionate community supports and ACP information for the public
• Challenges faced by community organizations in service delivery
• Strategies, tools and resources that could be shared
• Gaps in resources in BC
• Potential roles for BCCPC to support the work in the communities in the time of COVID-19.
The discussion highlighted the impacts of social isolation, especially isolation at the time of death and complex grieving. The organizations also shared their challenges with loss of revenue, shortages of staff and volunteers, and difficulty reaching people lacking access to technology. Despite these challenges, the organizations shared numerous success stories of strategies like check-in phone calls, arranging for practical needs like groceries, holding small social meetings online, and grief support services via Zoom.
Taking action
With the feedback of our stakeholders in mind, BCCPC had a roadmap for supporting our community-based organizations and individual stakeholders during this unprecedented time, especially for those looking for help with ACP:
• Serious COVID-19 Illness: Life-support treatments and complications – information about the potential benefits and harms of the life-support treatments that may be offered in severe COVID-19 illness
• Be prepared in the time of COVID-19 – a guide to start your advance care planning.
• BCCPC’s new Supporting our Communities in the time of COVID-19 Grant Program
BCCPC recognized the need to support BC non-profit organizations to initiate, adapt or continue to provide compassionate care supports and services for isolated or frail seniors, and those living with and dying from serious illnesses, and for their families, especially during a time when delivering services is more challenging than ever due to COVID -19. BCCPC’s new Supporting our Communities in the time of COVID-19 Grant Program will help fund up to twenty organizations with seed grants in August.
