Hospice Association of Ontario

1. Hospice Association of Ontario Sharing for Social Change June 18th, 2008

2. Founded and incorporated as a charitable organization in 1989 • Canada’s largest volunteer hospice palliative care organization (2006 – 14,000 Volunteers over 700,000 hours of direct service) • HAO member organizations are the largest direct service providers in Ontario’s voluntary health care sector • Volunteers are trained to provide volunteers (standardized curriculum) play a pivotal role in the delivery of hospice palliative care • Accreditation implemented in 2005

3. Common Messages “Dying and the appropriate care when we are dying is a broad societal issue, affecting us all. How we treat those who are dying in our community reflects who we are as a society.” • The Hospice Movement is a volunteer driven, compassionate caring response to a human need • Hospice palliative care is a continuum of care from diagnosis to death or cure

4. “Form” • a collaborative of free standing organizations • HAO members are autonomous from HAO and each other but joined by their membership in HAO • collective investments in each other • collective commitment to the hospice movement • Investment of values, standards and principles

5. “Function” • Facilitate learning and knowledge exchange through multi-disciplinary hospice palliative care education and training • Influence hospice palliative care public policy by developing ongoing relationships with elected officials and senior bureaucrats to cultivate integrated and responsive public policy environment • Cultivate leadership and continuous quality improvement through our groundbreaking standards and accreditation models (National firsts in health care volunteerism) • Convene stakeholder networks and build bridges across organizations through consultation, collaboration and joint action • Strengthen our members capacity and sustainability in order to achieve their full potential

6. A pool! We are all in the pool together! We make a bigger splash together! Together we have created a wave that has washed over everyone else!

7. Why do we need a pool? • Hospice was a well kept secret, a hidden jewel ~ a small, quiet, picturesque swimming hole that only those lucky enough to find it enjoyed the benefits • No one wants to talk about dieing ~ we were the weeds in the sea, but became the lily pads in our own private pool • Dying can be a lonely journey but not when hospice is swimming along side • The power of volunteers was often overlooked ~ we were small fish in a big sea ~ a private pool made us the big fish • A collective voice gave individual hospice organizations the power to take on a local public and political life ~ to swim with the big fish external to our own pool

8. Collaboration, Consultation, Investment in Capacity Building Example: Residential Standards: • Membership requested HAO to lead the standards development • Working group formed to represent the diversity of hospice organizations • Standards developed in the framework of the National Norms of Practice • Standards developed in keeping with the essence of hospice • Standards formally endorsed by the membership • Standards informally endorsed by the ministry – platform for funding advocacy – resulting in operation & capital funding • New residential hospices meet the HAO Residential Standards all across the province

9. Our Collective Purpose! “Dying and the appropriate care when we are dying is a broad societal issue, affecting us all. How we treat those who are dying in our community reflects who we are as a society.”