Palliative Care

CISSSMO now offers palliative care services at home

Local Journalism Initiative / The Gleaner / March 4, 2025 / CISSSMO, Healthcare, Palliative Care, Sarah Rennie, The Gleaner

Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter

Most people want to stay in their home for as long as possible, but for those receiving palliative care, this is not always an option. A new program in the Haut-Saint-Laurent could change this.

The Centre Intégré de Santé et de Services Sociaux de la Montérégie-Ouest (CISSSMO) launched an innovative new service in December. A team of nurse practitioners can now take charge of palliative care patients who do not have access to a physician and provide follow-up care at home.

The service is based on a close collaboration between area nurse practitioners working with the family medicine groups (FMG) in Ormstown and Huntingdon and the home care nursing team at the Huntingdon CLSC. It was initiated by Mélanie Pinsonneault, a nurse practitioner with the Ormstown FMG, who felt some patients would greatly benefit from receiving palliative care and end-of-life services at home. She proposed the idea to the management team at the CISSSMO and six other nurse practitioners who readily agreed, and within three months, the program was up and running.

It is designed for patients who do not have a family doctor, or whose doctor is either unfamiliar with palliative care or located too far away. Patients may be referred by a doctor, but in most cases, it is the CLSC home care nursing team that flags patients that fit the program criteria. Pinsonneault then assigns the patient to one of the seven nurse practitioners, depending on their location and expertise.

While similar initiatives exist for doctors, the CISSSMO’s program is unique in Quebec as it is run solely by nurse practitioners. In fact, the CISSSMO points to the program as a good example of what can be done now that the provincial government has expanded the role of nurse practitioners to include palliative care services and medical assistance in dying.

“We provide comprehensive care and complete medical follow-up at home,” says Pinsonneault, who has been working as a nurse practitioner since 2019. She says the role has evolved significantly, from not being able to diagnose patients when she first started, to being completely independently responsible for a full patient load. The team of nurse practitioners associated with the project are all responsible for patients with varied medical needs within their FMG, but they also participate in various projects. The palliative care initiative fit well with their role and the therapeutic relationship they build with their patients

Despite the workload, Pinsonneault says palliative care is something she has always been drawn to, and she and the other nurse practitioners are happy to take on additional patients if it means those patients can remain at home. “We take care of everything, from the medical side to symptom management, prescribing medication, and monitoring,” she explains.

Palliative care provides support to patients, families, and caregivers. The goal is to optimize quality of life while mitigating or reducing suffering for those with serious, often terminal illnesses. “It can last a year, it can last two years,” says Pinsonneault, who suggests this is why the new program is so important.

“It is a complete care team,” she says, while explaining how the nurse practitioners work closely with CLSC nurses, practical nurses, and care professionals to provide patient care and follow-up on an on-call basis when needed.

“It leads to fewer emergency room visits,” says Pinsonneault, and ultimately, to happier patients, whose end-of-life care needs are respected.

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Executive director of Wakefield palliative care home resigns

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / January 31, 2025 / Logan Vaillant, Maison des Collines, Palliative Care, Wakefield, Zenith Wolfe

By Zenith Wolfe

When Logan Vaillant’s mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2022, Vaillant had less than a month to visit her before she passed.

He describes Marie-Anna Plouffe as the liveliest person he’s ever met; a woman who loved the outdoors, and who always did her best to help those around her. Vaillant has only good things to say about how Hôpital de Hull staff treated them, but he says restricted visitation hours and the small room made it harder to stay by her side. Shared bathrooms provided little privacy, there was no accessible kitchen and she was barely able to go outside.

If he had known about Wakefield’s palliative care home Maison des Collines, he says he would have admitted his mother there in her final weeks.

“We receive people with prognostics of three months or less. They get in and say, ‘Well, I should have been here before,’ because they’re so comfortable, and family just gets to be with them,” he says.

Vaillant says that it was his mother’s death and philosophy on life that encouraged him to become the Maison’s executive director in October 2023.

For the last 15 months, he’s kept a photo of his mother on his desk. But he’ll soon take that photo with him when he assumes a new role elsewhere: executive director of the aid society Bureau régional d’action sida (BRAS) Outaouais, working with people nearing homelessness or struggling with addiction, and survivors of abuse.

“Leaving is a very, very difficult decision, and I’m not leaving because of anything relating to the organization,” he says. “I’m following something that’s kind of a dream for me. But I’m a phone call away, so if the Maison needs some kind of information, I’ll always make myself available.”

During his time with Maison des Collines, Vaillant has helped bring more public awareness to the five-year-old care home, which has led to an increase in their volunteer team to around 60 people; up from 50 when he joined the team. He adds that they anticipate taking on 10 more volunteers by the end of January.

Vaillant says he also improved their fundraising. In 2024, their golf tournament fundraiser brought in around $63,500, almost triple the revenue from 2023. Other campaigns improved to a smaller degree, he notes.

They’re still not exceeding targets for the year, but Vaillant says they’re on the way to sustainability. The homes’ 2024 holiday campaign surpassed its goal of $50,000, as donors gifted more than $83,000 in December and January following the Low Down’s Dec. 18, 2024 feature article on its financial struggles.

“We thank Dr. David Gold, who is our campaign chair this year, as well as everyone who’s donated so generously,” added Vaillant. “While $83,620 is an incredible testament of generosity from the community, we want to remind folks that we need over $500,000 per year to maintain our services. So, while the holiday campaign is an incredible success, we still have a ways to reach our yearly target.”

After he steps down from his post on Jan. 17, Vaillant says the Maison’s board will manage the executive director’s responsibilities and work on opening the application process to replace him. He says people interested in the position can contact board member Caryl Green.

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Dying with dignity in the Hills

Local Journalism Initiative / The Low Down / December 20, 2024 / La Maison des Collines, Palliative Care, Trevor Greenway, Wakefield

By Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative

You wouldn’t expect people facing inevitable death to be happy, but when you walk the halls of Wakefield’s palliative care home, that’s what you generally find.

The employees at La Maison des Collines – compassionate nurses, volunteers and pain management doctors – do everything they can to make life as comfortable as possible for the six residents who stay there. More than 400 residents have spent “the last moments of their lives” at the home, surrounded by friends, family, volunteers, nurses and doctors who help them through the dying process.

Chelsea resident Carrie Wallace’s mother, Mary Colleen Colligan, died Nov. 7 after a long battle with cancer and spent her final six weeks at La Maison. Wallace told the Low Down that it was “incredible” to see her mom’s fears and worries melt away when she arrived at the palliative care home.

“My mom spent her last six weeks at La Maison, and honestly, it was incredible to see how much joy and grace she displayed during that time,” said Wallace. “The worries and fears of being sick at home just seemed to fade away, and she blossomed into a funny, confident and deeply grateful version of herself. The transformation was amazing. The thing that is really remarkable is that, despite the stress of a terminal diagnosis, she was genuinely at her happiest during her time there.”

While Wallace called the six weeks her mother stayed at La Maison “incredibly magical,” she also said they were the most “painful and difficult six weeks of my life.”

“Losing my mother was and continues to be shockingly devastating,” said Wallace. “I can’t begin to imagine what it would’ve been like without La Maison.”

Wallace said the home took much of the worry away from her family – the fear of not being able to help if her mom needed medical intervention, the fear that she could be in chronic pain or the fear of dying. But Wallace said, ever since her mom was moved to La Maison des Collines, her spark returned, and the two could bond again.

“It gave us quality time that we never would have had. And it just created this space for something really deep – just deep connections. It wasn’t even philosophical; it just became this very gentle kind of real place where we could be together moment to moment,” said Wallace. She added that the staff and volunteers make La Maison des Collines “off the charts of amazing.”

In her eulogy, Wallace spoke of how Dr. David Ian Gold brought her mom’s smile back – a smile that would remain until her final breath.

“While he couldn’t cure her, he did save her life,” wrote Wallace. “His attentive care brought her immediate relief, and, from that moment on, she smiled constantly and never really stopped.”

Wallace’s story is but one tale of a transformation, but staff at the home talk about this daily; how many patients come in feeling anxious or fearful, only to find love, support and acceptance once they settle in.

“Our mission is comfort and dignity, so we take care of the patient from A to Z,” said Executive-director Logan Vaillant. “Anything they need, so when family and friends come to visit, all they have to do is spend time together. And on good days, it smells like bacon,” he joked.

Every room has a view, its own television and private washroom.

For employees, it can be a bittersweet job, as many nurses and volunteers make real connections with the residents – all while knowing that death is imminent. For nurse Julie Demers, she said the heartbreak and loving moments are all worth it.

“There is so much that I can give in helping in their final days that, when they finally leave, all of that richness that has helped them is very rewarding,” she said. She added, however, “There are some cases that are more difficult.”

The Low Down toured the home in early November with board members Caryl Green and Michael Geisterfer, who are campaigning this month to raise more money for the home. La Maison des Collines’ operating budget is $1.3 million, and just over half of that – around 55 per cent – is covered by provincial and municipal grants. The rest – close to $500,000 each year – is needed to keep the facility up and running.

Fundraisers like the annual golf tournament and the Wall of Hearts donations keep the organization afloat, but Green told the Low Down that it needs more baseline funding – recurrent donations – to keep operating at the level it has been.

“We need to expand our reach because many of our patients are now coming from Aylmer or Gatineau, and our funding really only comes from the des Collines region,” said Green. “So we will be expanding our ask to the City of Gatineau and into the Pontiac MRC.”

Green said board members are also encouraging donors to think about other ways of donating to the home, like putting money from wills or estate sales towards the future of Wakefield’s palliative care home. It costs La Maison des Collines $600 per patient per day to operate its facility or $150,000 on average per year per bed, and it receives $110,000 from the province. Green said Quebec’s palliative care association, Alliance des Soins Palliatifs du Québec, is lobbying for an annual increase per bed and is currently in negotiations.

Visit www.lamaisondescollines.org to donate, support or sign up for volunteering.

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