Conference Plenaries

Beyond Diagnosis: How Spiritual Health Moves Moments of Distress into Mantles of Meaning

In the clinically focussed and stressful world of healthcare, attention is often solely focused on physical and emotional/mental health—but what about the state of our spiritual health?  This keynote explores the essential role of spiritual care in supporting patients and staff alike. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of what spiritual health is, how it differs from mental health, and why it matters for everyone in the clinical environment.

Through engaging insights and real-world stories, this talk will highlight how spiritual care providers help patients navigate questions of meaning, purpose, and existential distress, while also supporting staff through the emotional and ethical challenges of caregiving and their own lives. Learn how spiritual health practitioners work with people of all faiths—or none—integrating with personal belief systems when appropriate and facilitating collaboration across the entire healthcare team.

Join Jeff to discover the power of spiritual care in enhancing well-being, fostering resilience, and improving outcomes for both patients and healthcare professionals. Walk away with a renewed appreciation for the spiritual dimension of health—and practical ideas for supporting it in your professional life.

Jeffrey Chant, B.A., M.Div., M.Ed., is a seasoned executive leader, keynote speaker, and counsellor with over 30 years of experience spanning nonprofit, corporate, and consulting sectors. Known for bridging organizational performance with human-centered leadership, he has led organizations through growth and renewal while fostering cultures of trust and inclusion. Jeff has served as CEO of Hospice Halifax, Vice President at Petrominerales Ltd., and founder of Arbinger Canada and Bermuda. With academic training in business, psychology, education, and theology, Jeff brings a systems-oriented perspective that helps organizations align people with purpose and thrive. He is a sought-after speaker recognized for integrating vision, empathy, and strategic insight.

Fifty Years of Hospice Palliative Care in Canada: Honouring Stories, Building Together, Looking Ahead

This panel brings together four leaders whose combined contributions span more than a century of service and advocacy in hospice and palliative care across Canada. Through storytelling, reflection, and discussion, they will explore the origins of the Canadian hospice palliative care movement, tracing how it evolved from early innovations distinct from the British hospice model into a unique national and global influence.

Stories will bring alive the groundbreaking science and clinical care that revolutionized the relief of suffering for serious illness. The panel will explain the pivotal role of palliative care in breaking the taboo of death while insisting on truth-telling and patient-centred care. The session will highlight the multidisciplinary, whole-person nature of care in the early years, the significant role of CHPCA and provincial palliative care associations, and community-based perspectives that shaped the field. Panelists will reflect on achievements and ongoing challenges, including stigma surrounding the language of “death” and “dying,” access and timing of referrals, and the importance of collective movements that continue to shape hospice palliative care in Canada.

Participants will be invited to consider what 50 years of progress means for today’s practice and how each of us can carry this legacy forward. Stories from the field will both celebrate the progress made and inspire reflection on the work still to be done, emphasizing that everyone, regardless of role, has a place in shaping the next chapter of hospice and palliative care in Canada.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify key milestones in the history and evolution of palliative care in Canada and its relationship to international models.

2. Recognize the role of innovative science, interdisciplinary collaboration, psychosocial supports, and collective movements in advancing hospice and palliative care over the past 50 years.

3. Reflect on ongoing challenges, including access, language, and public perception, and consider opportunities for shaping the future of palliative care.

4. Apply lessons from historical and contemporary experiences to strengthen their own capacity as advocates, practitioners, or caregivers in the field.

Panelists

Moderator: Nadine Valk

Nadine Valk is a full-time coach, educator, and mindfulness teacher based in Ottawa, with over 30 years of experience in health, community, and palliative care. She specializes in supporting healthcare teams to improve care delivery, implement complex projects, and integrate a palliative approach, while also helping them prioritize wellbeing and navigate emotionally demanding work.

Her background includes leadership roles such as Director of Education for Hospice Palliative Care Ontario and Executive Director of the Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program. Nadine holds a master’s degree in public administration with a focus on health policy and is a certified Integral Professional Coach™, with advanced training in team coaching, facilitation, emotional intelligence, and implementation science.

As coordinator and an instructor with the University of Toronto’s Mindfulness Informed End of Life Care Program, Nadine brings deep compassion and clarity to her teaching. She also delivers keynotes and webinars on topics like grief, burnout, emotional intelligence, and mental health habits, creating space for people to feel seen, supported, and connected.

Dr. John Fraser Scott

In 1975, Dr. Scott was awarded a 2-year McGill University Fellowship to study and develop palliative care, working alongside Dr Balfour Mount and Dr Ina Cummings to pioneer the world’s first palliative care program in Montreal which included a six-week period of bedside mentoring by Dame Cicely Saunders at St. Christopher’s Hospice. Trained in medicine (Toronto), theology (McGill & Toronto) and clinical epidemiology (McMaster), he pioneered palliative care programs in Toronto and Hamilton before founding Canada’s first academic Division of Palliative Medicine at the University of Ottawa. In 1991, Dr. Scott was a leader in the founding of the Canadian Palliative Care Association (now CHPCA). He retired from clinical work in June 2023 but remains active in academic and advocacy issues.

Dr. Scott is committed to the founding vision of Saunders and Mount. He continues to be inspired by the culture-shifting, fear-dispelling, life-affirming, interdisciplinary, community-engaging philosophy of palliative care. He is particularly passionate to ensure ethics, spirituality and compassionate whole person care remains central to our mission. Dr Scott says” My career in palliative care has been enriched by thousands of patients and colleagues for whom I am deeply grateful”.

Sharon Baxter

Sharon Baxter was the Executive Director of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) for 19 years until her retirement in January 2021. Sharon holds a Masters of Social Work degree in Public Policy and Administration and has worked on national health policy for over thirty years. Since January 2021 Sharon has worked as a consultant for the Canadian Cancer Society’s palliative care advocacy work as well as the Canadian Home Care Association and as an executive coach.

Sharon was involved with the Palliative Care Coalition of Canada (PCCC) previously called the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada (QELCCC). since its inception in 2000. The PCCC is a coalition of over 30 national organizations that have an interest in hospice palliative care issues. CHPCA and the PCCC are the authors of The Way Forward and Advance Care Planning in Canada initiatives found at www.chpca.net and www.advancecareplanning.ca.

Sharon sat on the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) Board of Trustees since its inception. As well as on the inaugural board of the International Children’s Palliative Care Alliance (ICPCN) and ehosipce International.

Sharon was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Metal in 2012 in support of her contributions to the field of hospice palliative care. Sharon was subsequently awarded the King Charles III Coronation Metal in 2024 for her HIV/AIDS work from 1992-2001.

Sharon provided guidance to the federal government with the development of the national Framework for Palliative Care. Sharon was a member of the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) College of Reviewers. Sharon has been involved in many other national and international coalitions and committees looking at hospice palliative issues specifically around health policy. Sharon has spoken at many conferences around national health policy, advance care planning and hospice palliative care and is a strong advocate.

Wendy Wainwright, M.Ed.

Wendy retired from Victoria Hospice in 2019, after many years working as a counsellor, bereavement coordinator and Director of Clinical Services. She co-authored the ‘Transitions in Dying and Bereavement’ text and has led a number of research and social work competency projects and made numerous education presentations. She developed a course on Psychosocial Care of the Dying and Bereaved offered for many years in Victoria. She served for many years on the boards of both CHPCA and BCHPCA, including terms as president. She cares deeply about and advocates for psychosocial or holistic care of people at the end of life and in bereavement.

Wendy currently spends her time reading, gardening, travelling and serving as ‘Dance Nana’ for her granddaughter Olivia.

Palliative Care in Canada: past, present and future

Palliative Care is going through transitions all over the world, including in Canada. The health care system is a machine with a lot of inertia, and cultural change takes generations. Dr. Hawley will discuss the past and current challenges we face as a discipline and how we might facilitate healthy growth and transformation so that the potential benefits of equitable access to high quality and timely palliative care care realized.

Dr. Pippa Hawley trained as a General Internist and then undertook a self-directed Palliative Medicine Fellowship including 6 months in the UK working with Prof. Geoff Hanks, the first professor of Palliative Medicine in the UK. She then started the Pain & Symptom Management/Palliative Care program at BC Cancer, in 1997. Under her leadership the program grew to have teams in all 6 BC Cancer centres, involving more than 20 physicians, with a strong focus on training, integration with local palliative care and pain management services, and (in Vancouver and Surrey centres) also on research. Pippa built collaborative relationships with the regional health authorities to be able to offer interventional pain management, lidocaine infusions, ketamine therapy, interventional radiological and neurosurgical palliative procedures. Pippa also was an early adopter of methadone for pain management, and has taught a generation of physicians how to use it safely and effectively. Pippa ha carried out a number of clinical trials, including medications for management of constipation, honey for radiation-induced mucositis, lidocaine for cancer pain, and most recently medical cannabis oil extracts to help relieve cancer-related symptoms Pippa was awarded the Eduardo Bruera Award for overall contribution to Palliative Medicine in 2023 by the Canadian Society of Palliative Medicine.