About the Program
The Companion Program offers a family-centred and community-based approach with the goal of improving quality of life for those impacted by any advanced illness. Volunteers are carefully matched with clients to provide ongoing, regular support that includes respite, companionship, resource sharing, and other practical support. The program aims to help reduce stress and feelings of isolation in patients, caregivers, and their families and promote an active role in living life to the fullest during illness.
This program is launching in Fall 2022. For more information, please email us today.
Additional Resources
We have gathered the following resources for you. Visit our Resources page for more.
For Caregivers Coping with Advanced Illness
- A Guide for Caregivers
- CareChannel Resource Library
- Emotional Journey of Caregiving
- Caregiver Alberta: Programs & Services Brochure
- Caregiver Alberta: Community Programs
- Caregiver Coaching
- Caregiver Connect
- Caregivers Guide: A Handbook about End of Life Care
- Caregivers Lighthouse
- Calgary Seniors Volunteer Respite for Caregivers
- Caregivers: Put on Your Own Oxygen Mask First
- Caregiver Support Program Online Training
- Canadian Virtual Hospice
- Family Conversations about MAID
- Living with Advanced Illness Brochure
- PEOLC Resources
- Sleep Disturbances
- Stories for Caregivers
- Support for Alzheimer's and Dementia Caregivers
- Talking to Children About Life-Threatening Illness
- Talking To Teens about Life-Threatening Illness
- When the Holidays Hurt
- When Grief Goes to School
- Video -- Tips for Caregivers
Suggested Books
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
- The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs
- The Grace in Dying: A Message of Hope, Comfort and Spiritual Transformation by Kathleen Dowling Singh
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
- Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying by Ram Dass, Bush Mirabai
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
For those Living with Advanced Illness & their Families
- Alberta Cancer Exercise Brochure
- Canadian Virtual Hospice
- Child Grief & Life-Threatening Illness in the Family
- Chinese Patients With Cancer at the End of Life
- Family Conversations about MAID
- Grief in the Workplace
- I Did it My Way: Aging Well To The End
- Life's Last Chapter
- Living with Advanced Illness Brochure
- Living with Cancer Program
- Should My Child Attend the Funeral?
- Talking To Children about Life-Threatening Illness
- Teen Grief & Life-Threatening Illness in the Family
- The Grieving Colleague: 10 Do's and Don't's
- Palliative Care Resources
- When Grief Goes to School
- When the Holidays Hurt
Suggested Books
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul GawaBrocnde
- The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs
- The Grace in Dying: A Message of Hope, Comfort and Spiritual Transformation by Kathleen Dowling Singh
- Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying by Ram Dass, Bush Mirabai
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
View the full bibliography
For those Planning Advanced Care at End of Life
Palliative Care at End of Life
- AHS Palliative Care Resource Listing
- Alberta Hospice Palliative Care Association
- Life's Last Chapter
- Living My Culture
- I Did it My Way: Aging Well To The End
- Memorial Society of Alberta
Financial Management
- Canada Pension Survivors Benefit
- Canadian Virtual Hospice: Patient Benefits
- Compassionate Benefits Program
Funeral Planning
For Professionals & Volunteers Working in Palliative Care
- Alberta Health Services Infection Prevention & Control
- Canadian Virtual Hospice
- Chinese Patients with Cancer at the End of Life
- Family Conversations about MAID
- Life's Last Chapter
- Living with Advanced Illness Brochure
- Musings of a Hospice Chaplain
- My Health Alberta: Palliative and End of Life Care
- St. John Ambulance and The Order of St. Lazarus
Our Practice at Rosedale Hospice
Mindfulness Practice
- Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine Health Care and Society
- Local Learning & Practice Opportunities
- New York Zen Centre for Contemplative Care
- Room Blessing
- Shift Change Blessing
- University of Rochester Medical Centre Family Medicine Mindful Practice
- Upaya Zen Centre
Suggested Books
- A Place of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada
- A Year to Live by Stephen Levine
- Being with Dying by Joan Halifax, Ira Byock
- Crossing Over: Narratives of Palliative Care by David Barnard
- Dying Well by Ira Byock
- Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine by Saki Santorelli
- Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery by Linda E. Carlson, Michael Speca
- My Grandfather's Blessings : Stories of Strength, Refuge, and Belonging by Rachel Naomi Remen
- Resilience in Palliative Care Achievement in Adversity by Barbara Monroe
- The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseki
- The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, And The Human Condition by Arthur Kleinman
- The Nature of Suffering: And the Goals of Medicine by Eric J. Cassell
- Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying by Stephen Levine, Ondrea Levine
- With the End in Mind by Kathryn Mannix
