Mission and history
Our Mission
To provide a better quality of life to the terminally ill and their family caregivers.
Our Vision
In cooperation with our partners, our vision is to offer top quality palliative care services in the home to ease the physical, emotional, moral and psychosocial suffering of those who have a terminal illness and short life expectancy, and help them live their illness with serenity and dignity and stay with their immediate family.
Our Values and Principles
• The needs of the patient and immediate family take priority
• Compassion
• Reliability
• Confidentiality
• Competence and professionalism
• Ethical conduct
Brief History
Fondation Palliacco des Sommets is a registered non-profit organization started in 2003. Initially called “Defi Ultime”, the organization changed its name to Maison Sylvie et Daniel Lachance when it was incorporated as a non profit entity in 2005. Sylvie and Daniel Lachance, owners of a ski boutique in the village of Mont Tremblant, observed over the years that some of their clients had not returned to the boutique because they were suffering from a terminal illness. They thought of establishing a 9-bed palliative care centre. A Board of Directors was set up and a feasibility study was launched. The study concluded that, in the short term and possibly medium term, a 9-bed palliative care centre in the Mont-Tremblant region could not be viable because an 8-bed palliative care facility had just been put in place at the General Hospital of Sainte-Agathe.
After visiting several palliative care facilities in the province and talking to experts in the field, the members of the board came to the conclusion that there was a definite need for palliative care accompaniment services in the home. Research data clearly indicates that most people would like to die or remain at home as long as possible. Unfortunately many families face too many obstacles to care for the ill at home. The Board met to discuss the options and decided to alter the mission of the project and to place greater emphasis on the provision of accompaniment services in the home, at least initially.
A Mont-Tremblant resident offered us free of rent a large house at 2280 rue Labelle, Mont-Tremblant and has agreed to pay for the heating and electricity for one year. The lease is i in force until the end of November 2012. Renovations to install offices and training rooms were undertaken during the month of November. In the summer of 2008, two bedrooms in the house were upgraded to offer rest and relaxation for family members of the terminally ill. In the medium term, possibly in 2010 or 2011, it is our intention to open a day care centre where terminally ill people could spend the day under adequate supervision, allowing their family caregivers to have a rest or meet other obligations.