“Hope and fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
Invite one to stay.” —Maya Angelou

Helping patients receive the care they need

Saint Vincent Hospital in collaboration with the Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) Care Network of Worcester provides comprehensive and compassionate care to patients in the hospital setting and at various stages throughout the course of their illness.

The Saint Vincent Hospital Palliative Care program aims to help relieve suffering and improve the quality of living and dying for patients whose disease cannot be cured. Palliative care supports the principle that it is important for people to be given the opportunity to live out their days with meaning and as little distress as possible. It may complement and enhance disease modifying therapy or it may become the total focus of care.

Palliative Care Program Goals:

• Embraces life and regards death as a normal process


• Neither speeds up death nor delays it


• Provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms


• Integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of care


• Offers a support system to help patients live as well as possible until death


• Offers a support system to help families cope with their loved one's death and to help them cope afterward with their own bereavement

Palliative care helps patients receive the care they need in the surroundings they prefer. So, palliative can be provided at home, in a hospice, a long-term care facility or in a hospital. It is planned and delivered through the collaborative efforts of many people including the patient, their caregivers (family and friends) and service providers including your family physician, hospital physicians, pastoral and social workers.

For more information please click here to download a pdf file.