Caring for Structurally Vulnerable Populations: What Equity-Oriented Palliative Care Teaches Us About Radical Love, Loss and Leadership in Healthcare – Part 2: Radical Love in Palliative Care

Waterloo-Wellington was fortunate to host Dr. Naheed Dosani, PEACH Program, and Dr. Nadine Persaud, Kensington Health, at our Fall Palliative Education Evening Conference entitled: “Caring for Structurally Vulnerable Populations: What Equity-Oriented Palliative Care Teaches Us About Radical Love, Loss and Leadership in Healthcare”.

Radical Love…

• is providing low-barrier access to hospice care for structurally vulnerable individuals.
• calls for care rooted in equity and empathy.

Radical Love: More Than a Philosophy

• A Health Equity and Justice Framework Embedded in Hospice Care
• Radical Love reframes hospice as a space for healing
• Developed by Kensington Hospice to explicitly center equity, dignity, and inclusion
• Not a specialized site for the “hard to house”; a model for all hospices in Canada
• Seeks to address “double vulnerability”: dying while facing systemic exclusion

What Does Radical Love Look Like?

• Making hospice accessible, relational, low-barrier, and anti-oppressive
• Shifting from intake to outreach
• A focus on the social determinants of health
• Equity-based referral pathways
• Health equity and anti-racism training
• Health navigation
• Community partnerships
• Embedding unique roles such as peer workers and psychiatric supports
• Meeting people where they are at and respecting their priorities and choices; this might look like:
  • care in a stairwell, or on the street
  • care concurrent with substance use
  • navigating care without a health card or benefits
  • trauma-informed care that happens in traditional care settings

Five Pillars of Radical Love

1. A Model Rooted in justice
2. Dignity & Autonomy- Respect for agency, choice and personhood
3. Culturally safer care-Honouring identities, beliefs and traditions
4. Relational Practice Belonging- Connection as clinical imperative
5. Responsive Clinical Structures-Systems that adapt to people’s real lives

Resource

1. Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless (PEACH) Program
2. Kensington Health – Radical Love: Redefining Hospice Care

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PDF – Radical Love in Palliative Care

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