Ontario's hospices are community-based volunteer organizations. Hospice palliative care volunteers are part of an interdisciplinary team, which includes the entire family, physicians, nurses, coordinators, social workers, community support services, occupational therapists and spiritual counselors.
Care is provided at home, in specialized hospice facilities, hospitals and nursing homes.
Hospices look after people with all types of illnesses - from cancer, AIDS and ALS to renal and heart failure. Hospice palliative care is about caring, not curing and about living in dignity and in comfort until the very end of life. It is the care that helps make a very difficult life passage a meaningful one for people facing death and their loved ones. We have experienced an explosive growth rate - from 8 members in 1989 to 100 members in 2001. HAO hospice members serve more than 250 communities throughout Ontario.