East Kootenay project takes a patient-centered approach to frailty care

A project in the East Kootenay region is helping to bring a better understanding to health care professionals of what exactly frailty and palliative care entail. The Curiosity, Frailty and Palliative Care project is focused on embedding a palliative approach to care across the region’s medical community that is person-centered, culturally appropriate, and trauma informed.

“I did not recognize how strong both the health care providers’, along with public belief, is that palliative care is the last few weeks of life,” explains Dr Greg Andreas, family physician and co-physician lead of the Curiosity, Frailty, and Palliative Care Project in East Kootenay. “It is making our goal of reframing this as a potentially more connected, team- and community-supported process that can start far earlier, far more challenging than I thought initially”.

Frailty, a word the project team has worked hard to define in practical terms, refers to patients nearing a stage where they will be making frequent hospital visits, or pass away. What’s important is that this not limited to seniors, although the project recognizes that seniors comprise a majority of those that fall within their work. This patient population is also a top priority of the Physician Services Committee (PSC)—the parent committee of the Joint Collaborative Committees (JCC)—and the Ministry of Health.

Through the use of various tools, such as the “What Matters to You Movement”—a patient-centered health care approach that focuses on meaningful conversations with individuals and their families—and the Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (LEAP), the project team hopes to spark curiosity, build new relationships, and increase the level of understanding around frailty care within East Kootenay’s medical community.

Having been funded in early 2024, the team is tackling a steep learning curve and developing connections to support the change they want to see in the system. They’ve also developed a Frailty Working Group that defined frailty and developed a screening tool they will test this fall.

“Our biggest challenge is challenging beliefs,” says Dr Andreas. “Our efforts are not to add to the exhaustion of our system, but rather to add deeply to efficiency and work meaning for each person.”

As the project progresses, the team is optimistic about turning system connections into relationships. Through this, they can learn about where a palliative approach can become part of the solution to the health care system’s many hardships.

The project team has created a LinkedIn page for the project to learn more, share ideas, and make new connections.

“We’ve long known that it takes a village to raise a child,” reflects Dr Andreas. “We are learning it takes a village to walk beside, and say goodbye.”

This project is funded by Shared Care, a joint collaborative committee representing a partnership between Doctors of BC and the Government of BC.