CBC Documentary Profiles Dr. Naheed Dosani and a New Hospice for the Homeless in Toronto
Journey Home Hospice, a new hospice that provides high-quality health care services and a safe, welcoming space for Toronto's homeless, recently opened its doors. The hospice is a partnership involving the Saint Elizabeth Foundation, Inner City Health Associates and Hospice Toronto.
A recent documentary made by the CBC and an accompanying article takes you inside the hospice and follows the work of Dr. Naheed Dosani, a palliative care physician at the hospice and some of the patients receiving care.
According to Dosani, compared to the general population, homeless people are:
- Four times more likely to have cancer.
- Five times more likely to have heart disease.
- Twenty-eight times more likely to have Hepatitis C.
The average life expectancy of a person living on the streets in Canada is 47.
Dr. Dosani is a lecturer at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Palliative Care Physician with William Osler Health System and the Inner-City Health Associates (ICHA), a group of more than 60 physicians who work in shelters and drop-in sites to provide care to homeless and marginally housed individuals in the Greater Toronto Area. He also continues to be the Project Lead of Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless (PEACH), an initiative of ICHA. PEACH delivers community-based hospice palliative care to society’s most vulnerable individuals regardless of their housing status or factors such as poverty or substance use.
Read a CBC article about the hospice and Dr. Dosani's work
Learn more about and donate to Journey Home Hospice Millions of dollars still needs to be raised to continue this work.
