Louise Hanvey receives Award of Excellence from Quality End-of-Life Coalition of Canada

(Ottawa, ON) — Louise Hanvey, Project Director of the National Advance Care Planning Project in Canada was awarded the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada’s (QELCCC) Award of Excellence in Advocacy on January 25th in Toronto. The award recognized Ms. Hanvey’s efforts in advocating for the advancement of hospice palliative care in Canada, and for her dedication to the development of the Advance Care Planning in Canada Project.

“I’m so honoured to have been chosen for this award,” says Ms. Hanvey. “The QELCCC has an impressive record for groundbreaking work in palliative and end-of-life care, and it’s a privilege to be recognized by such a strong network of professionals.”

The QELCCC is a network of 37 national organizations, including professional and family caregivers, volunteers, health care professionals, patients and families. Their mandate is to act as an advocate for quality end-of-life care for all Canadians through the development of a collaborative, well-funded and sustainable national strategy for hospice palliative and end-of-life care. Recently the QELCCC and the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association received $3M in funding from the federal government to develop strategies to improve access to hospice palliative care through community integration.

Ms. Hanvey is a Registered Nurse with a Masters degree in Health Administration. A consultant in both health policy and programming, she has extensive experience in advocacy, program planning, policy development and service delivery across a broad range of health issues, including sexual health, prenatal/childbirth education, child/youth issues and palliative / end-of-life care. She has been working on the National Advance Care Planning in Canada Project since 2008.

The Advance Care Planning Project in Canada was initiated in 2008 to raise the awareness of Canadians about the importance of advance care planning and to equip them and their health care providers with the tools they need to effectively engage in the process. The project’s Speak Up campaign provides a number of resources and tools to individuals and organizations through its website (www.advancecareplanning.ca) and has worked with provincial and territorial governments to proclaim April 16th as National Advance Care Planning Day.

For more information, please contact: Vanessa Sherry, Communications Officer, Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association, 1-800-668-2785 ext. 229, [email protected]

To learn more about the QELCCC: http://www.qelccc.ca

To learn more about advance care planning: www.advancecareplanning.ca