Dealing with the media and getting your story out there can be challenging. Use these key messages to help focus your communication with the media.

• Section I: Hospice Palliative Care
• Section II: Living Lessons^® Campaign

The following key messages are provided to assist you when answering media questions. Take some time to review and rehearse the messages and be sure to keep a copy with you or by the phone as a reference should you receive media calls.

Section I: Hospice Palliative Care

1. Canadians need to start talking about death and be aware of end-of-life care choices
As difficult as it may be to talk about death and dying, at some point we will all face the end of life. Death is a progression of life and everyone has a personal responsibility to become informed about end-of-life care options – including the medical treatment and support services that hospice palliative care organizations offer. It’s important to encourage dialogue with family members and loved ones and discuss the types of treatment and kind of care you want. Why not talk to your physician about hospice palliative care at your next appointment? Explore your options and find out what services exist in your community. Planning ahead makes the end easier for many people.

2. Hospice palliative care enhances quality of life by relieving physical pain and suffering
Living with pain does not have to be part of living with a life-threatening illness. Hospice palliative care can enhance the quality of life for persons facing such illnesses such as cancer, AIDS, heart disease and lung disease by offering comfort and support to the patient and his loved ones. Hospice palliative care is an holistic form of health care centered on relieving physical pain and symptoms in combination with offering emotional, social and spiritual support to the patient and his or her loved ones.

3. Exercising choice is critical when faced with a life-threatening illness
Canadians need to be able to make informed choices about living with – or dying from– a terminal or advanced illness. Hospice palliative care is about choice and options – choosing the kind of skilled competent care that meets an individual’s particular needs and takes into account his or her social and family situation. It is about teamwork, flexibility, care of the whole person, comfort, compassion, communication and quality of life.

4. Hospice palliative care lets those facing life-threatening illness live with dignity
Hospice palliative care helps Canadians facing life-threatening illness live with dignity. We know that everyone faces death in his or her own way. Retaining the power of individual choice – about medical treatments, about the care setting, about practical, emotional and spiritual services – is essential. Exercising choice preserves dignity and prevents isolation from the daily business of living.

5. As our population ages, the need for hospice palliative care services increases
The need for hospice palliative care services is growing as Canada’s aging population increases and more people face terminal and advanced illness. Hospice palliative care organizations have been committed to providing Canadians with the physical, emotional, and spiritual treatment and support associated with end-of-life care. However we’re at a stage where we cannot always meet the demand for services within the community. We’d like to see greater investment by governments in the areas of research, education and training so that people with life-threatening illness and their loved once have better access to, and can benefit from, the support network hospice palliative care provides.

6. As funding for hospitals and healthcare is reduced, the demand for hospice palliative care increases
The need for increased hospice palliative care is critical since recent restructuring and cost cutting in the healthcare and social services sectors have resulted in: hospital closures, decreased availability of palliative care beds, earlier discharges and increased reliance on homecare and caregivers without adequate support systems for most terminally ill patients and their caregivers. Hospice palliative care provides a cost-effective means to providing quality end-of-life care to patients and their loved ones. More than 450 hospice palliative care organizations exist in Canada to provide quality end-of-life care, but often cannot meet the demand for services within their communities.

7. Hospice palliative care reduces the stress often experienced by caregivers
Professional hospice palliative care workers and trained volunteers recognize that caring for a loved one with a life-threatening illness can be demanding, intense and stressful. Hospice palliative care extends to family and friends and helps them to care for loved ones and themselves during a very difficult time in their lives. It offers a needed break for caregivers so they can take some time for themselves. It also provides the much-needed support that caregivers require including coping skills, bereavement counseling, or simply someone to talk to.

8. Physician assisted suicide or euthanasia is not the answer
Unrelieved pain and suffering can lead to a patient's request for physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia. Hospice palliative care can relieve most physical pain and suffering and offer greater care in terms of emotional, social and spiritual support for patients and caregivers. We believe heightened awareness and increased access to hospice palliative care services will offer more Canadians quality end-of-life care and reduce the number of requests for physician assisted suicide or euthanasia.

Section II: Living Lessons^® Campaign

1. The campaign lessons are based on real-life experiences
The lessons of the campaign are based on the experiences of hospice palliative care patients, professionals, trained volunteers and families which show there are many life lessons to be learned despite the fear, anxiety and stress that often accompanies death. They are lessons of dignity, comfort and practical advice and must be shared if Canadians are to have the kind of quality end-of-life care that hospice palliative care organizations offer.

2. The Living Lessons^® campaign can help to change peoples' attitudes and behaviours about death and dying
By raising awareness about hospice palliative care services, values and real-life experiences, we hope to change peoples’ attitudes and behaviours about death and dying. While the journey towards death can be very difficult, the treatment and support a hospice palliative caregiving team provides can make it a rich and fulfilling experience.

3. The Living Lessons^® campaign raises awareness about the increased need for hospice palliative care
Hospice palliative care organizations recognize that patients and their caregivers need to have adequate support to care for their loved ones facing advanced illness. Nearly three million Canadians are caring for a loved one with a life-threatening or long-term illness, however fewer less than 20 per cent of people facing a life-threatening illness are currently receiving skilled hospice palliative care. More than 450 hospice palliative care organizations exist in Canada to provide this support, but often cannot meet the demand for services within their communities.

The reasons include:

• A baby-boom generation that is aging and living longer meaning more people are facing life-threatening illness
• Recent restructuring and cost cutting in the healthcare and social services sectors has resulted in hospital closures; decreased availability of palliative care beds; earlier discharges; and increased reliance on homecare and caregivers without adequate support systems for most terminally ill patients and their caregivers.
• Only 36% of Canadians in a 2004 study said they felt they could devote the time needed to care for loved ones facing life-threatening illness.

4. The Living Lessons^® campaign provides a step towards ensuring hospice palliative care is available to every Canadian facing a life-threatening illness and their loved ones
It is time to recognize that hospice palliative care is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Less than 20 per cent of people facing terminal or advanced illness today are receiving skilled hospice palliative care. And studies show that pain and symptom control is still lacking in the healthcare system. Too many people are facing life-threatening illness in pain, isolation and despair.

The Living Lessons^® campaign encourages Canadians to become advocates for increased hospice palliative care funding, resources, training and expertise in their community.