Upcoming Webinars

March 20 2025 12 to 1 EST

Introducing iRespite Services iRépit: Harnessing digital technologies to design accessible respite care

Respite care is essential for supporting families dealing with life-limiting illnesses, such as advanced cancers, by enabling them to remain at home for longer. These services provide family caregivers with short breaks from their demanding roles while also offering care-receivers social support and access to resources outside the home. Despite the high demand for respite care, these services are often under-utilized, even when available. This under-utilization can be attributed in part to factors such as inflexible scheduling, a lack of trained palliative care providers, and feelings of guilt associated with using respite services.

For her doctoral research, Ms. Castro and Dr. Tsimicalis collaborated with nurses, family caregivers, and patients to co-design an app aimed at enhancing the accessibility of respite care services for families with advanced cancers in Quebec. In this webinar, they will present the formative design of the iRespite Services iRépit app, which includes a bilingual navigational tool for finding palliative respite care agencies in Quebec. The presentation will cover the theoretical and methodological frameworks that guided the design process, highlighting key features incorporated to improve the accessibility of the app-based service. Finally, they will discuss how the insights gained from this project can inform the design and accessibility of similar community and global oncology services.

Aimee Castro, RN MSc(A), is a PhD candidate in the Ingram School of Nursing at McGill University. Ms. Castro has been a family caregiver, a homecare worker, and an entrepreneur making digital technologies more accessible to older adults. Her research focuses on the use of digital health technologies for supporting family caregiving.

Argerie Tsimicalis RN PhD is an Associate Professor, Ingram School of Nursing and Program Director, Global Oncology, Gerald Bronfman Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Associate Member, Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences, McGill University, and a Junior 2 Research Scholar (2024-2028), Fonds de recherche Québec-Santé. Her program of research strives to collaboratively create new programs, structures, and resources to transform the delivery of children's health services locally and globally.

Jennifer Campagnolo

Mallory
Peters

April 17 2025 12 to 1 EST
Navigating Palliative Care Emergencies with Care and Compassion
Sudden bleeding or breathlessness may be expected symptoms for someone receiving palliative care at home, but can be alarming if the person and their family are unprepared. These symptoms can feel urgent, distress caregivers, lead to unplanned visits to the emergency department, and significantly impact a person’s quality of life. For home-based palliative care providers, recognizing and addressing such crises is essential. Engaging patients, families, and caregivers in clear, proactive discussions empowers them to anticipate and manage emergencies while awaiting the support of healthcare providers. This presentation introduces the Be Prepared: Palliative Care Emergencies in the Home Conversation Guides, developed by the Canadian Home Care Association and the Montreal Institute for Palliative Care, to help nurses recognize, manage, and support patients through common palliative emergencies. Health PEI’s Integrated Palliative Care Program will share its experience implementing these guides to support frontline nurses across the province.
Jennifer Campagnolo, Project ECHO Lead, Canadian Home Care Association
Jennifer uses her strengths in program development, integration, teaching and health policy to identify and coordinate the content of the Association’s 3 learning streams: Home-Based Palliative Care, Integrated Seniors Care and Rural Connections. She is a registered nurse with experience in acute and community-based care in Canada and the United Kingdom and is committed to ensuring that people of all ages have access to high quality care in the setting of their choice.
Mallory Peters, Palliative Care Coordinator, Integrated Palliative Care Program, Health PEI
Mallory is a Registered Nurse who is Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Certified. She graduated from St. Francis Xavier University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and has worked in many different areas of healthcare before settling into Palliative Care for the last several years. She is a Palliative Care Coordinator with Health PEI. She provides pain and symptom management and end of life care for clients and their families/caregivers in rural PEI. She works with the Integrated Palliative Care Program, a specialized interdisciplinary team through Provincial Home Based Care, that provides comfort and support for clients to live fully until they reach the end of their lives.