Last Aid
Serious illness, dying, and grief are profound experiences. The Last Aid course equips us with knowledge and confidence to support those at the end of life and navigate our own mortality with greater understanding and courage.
What is Last Aid®?
Last Aid is a public education course that helps to raise awareness on topics like palliative care, death, dying, grief and bereavement.
Rooted in the compassionate communities approach, the program was developed in 2008 by Dr Georg Bollig, an emergency care physician and consultant in Palliative Medicine.
Why is Last Aid Important?
World-wide, 95% of the time spent managing a life-limiting illness occurs with family, friends, and the community, with only 5% involving healthcare professionals.
In Canada, family/friend caregivers provide 70-80% of care to individuals with a chronic health problem or disability
Benefits of Last Aid
Encourage Open Conversations: Make it easier to talk about death, dying, and grief, helping to reduce fear and stigma.
Boost Skills and Confidence: Help people learn about palliative care and feel more prepared to care for those who are seriously ill.
Strengthen Community: Build caring communities by giving people the knowledge and skills to support those facing the end of life or loss.
Join the Last Aid Community!
Become a Last Aid Supporter and help grow this vital, under-funded movement in Canada. By joining, your name will be added to the Last Aid Supporter section below as someone who believes everyone deserves the basic knowledge and confidence to support others at the end of life.
Community participation is yearly from the date of joining. Ten days before the end of the year you will receive an email asking if you would like to continue to be part of the community.
“It was truly an honour to be in this space with the others. The facilitators made the space feel safe, which was evident by how much people felt comfortable sharing. Even though I am a professional with experience in death, grief, and bereavement, I learned so much from this course. I feel very at peace after our conversations and being a part of this course. Thinking about death, about my own and my loved ones’, feels more comfortable than before; it motivates me to continue these conversations with my family and friends. I feel less scared.”
Darian R.S
Recognition
In both 2012 and 2015 Last Aid won awards at the international Palliative Care Network Conference.
Also, in 2015 Last Aid® was awarded the “Recognition and Advancement Prize for Outpatient Palliative Care”, by the German Society for Palliative Medicine. And, as a participant in the nationwide competition Startsocial, was honoured by Chancellor Merkel as one of Germany’s best civic projects.
Last Aid Supporters
Tara Landry
Julie McIntrye
Kristina Godau
Northridge Funeral Home Ltd.
With support from:
