People who care for the terminally ill in the Yukon want the territorial government to do more to help the dying.
The territory is the only jurisdiction in the country without a designated palliative care program and Hospice Yukon wants to make that an election issue when voters go to the polls this fall.
"As it sits right now in the Yukon, when you receive a palliative diagnosis from your physician, there isn't one place for you to go," said Cathy Routledge, the executive director of Hospice Yukon. "There's not somebody that you can go and see. There's not one person that has the information for you that you're going to need."
Routledge said her Whitehorse-based organization's volunteers are visiting about 20 palliative patients right now.
While some people choose to die at home or at the city's long-term care facility, she said many terminally ill patients end up at Whitehorse General Hospital. However, there are no beds set aside for them.
"Dealing with people at the end of their life is now a government responsibility and that's not necessarily the best thing, but that's how it's happened, that's where we are as a culture," Routledge said.
Letters sent to party officials
With an election in the offing in the territory this fall, she said her group plans to make developing better facilities for the dying an issue for the politicians to consider.
"We are going to be sending questions to the candidates and to the parties," Routledge said. "And we are going to be putting the whole issue of hospice palliative care out there."
Joan Craig, who lost her husband to bone cancer nine months ago, said it's time the government also comforts the dying.
She's already sent a letter to every party in the Yukon, urging them to fund a palliative care program at the hospital.
"So that people really felt it was really not a hospital, just a comfortable home where the family could gather, and the person could be given competent medical care too ease mostly their pain," she said.
Routledge says it's time the territory paid for a proper place with four or five dedicated beds where Yukoners can go to die with dignity and care tailored to their needs.
| Party | Elected | Leading | Total | Vote Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YP | 10 | 0 | 10 | 40.78% |
| LIB | 5 | 0 | 5 | 34.83% |
| NDP | 3 | 0 | 3 | 23.33% |
| OTH | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.06% |
| Last Update:October 10, 10:01:08 PM PDT | ||||