Thank you.
We definitely need increased funding and resources in palliative care, but it needs to be separate and distinct from MAID. Currently, essentially all of us are competing for the same resources. As I mentioned before, we have palliative care nurses in many of our provinces who are doing MAID assessments instead. My community is distressed. We're burnt out. We're being asked to do more with less. Some of our community members have retired early. Others have left the field.
Really, we need to be able to provide a sustained investment in palliative care. We have some of the best researchers in palliative care here in Canada, but when it comes to our clinical programs, we are way behind other developed nations. That definitely needs to change.
In terms of the communication around this, as national organizations representing palliative care in Canada, we would love to be able to meaningfully engage with our government officials. As the experts in the field, we can help you with the information you need, and the guidance, so that we can work together and improve palliative care in Canada for Canadians together. We can't do this if we're ignored or if we're called at the eleventh hour.