Released: October 1, 2025 by Statistics Canada
A new national study from Statistics Canada, Living with a Life-Limiting Illness: A 2024 Crowdsourced Study of Experiences and Access to Care, offers a rare glimpse into how Canadians living with life-limiting conditions, and their unpaid caregivers, experience care, access, and support.
The study engaged nearly 1,000 participants across the country between October 2024 and March 2025, including people living with advanced cancer, dementia, and neurological diseases, as well as unpaid family and community caregivers. While not statistically representative, the findings provide meaningful insight into lived experiences and highlight ongoing gaps in palliative and end-of-life care.
Among participants, only 27% reported receiving a high level of palliative care, while 30% experienced low levels of support. 80% said that health services were difficult to access outside regular hours, and over half reported complications due to delayed or insufficient care. Pain and symptom management, specialist referrals, and care coordination were among the hardest services to access.
The study also sheds light on the experiences of unpaid caregivers, 89% reported never receiving an assessment of their support needs. The most requested supports were respite care, improved communication with health-care providers, and access to home care or financial assistance.
These findings reinforce what hospice societies across British Columbia see every day: that timely, community-based palliative and bereavement supports are essential to quality of life and to the sustainability of our health system. BCHPCA commends Statistics Canada, Health Canada, CIHI, and the Public Health Agency of Canada for advancing this critical national conversation, so that provinces and territories, in partnership with care providers, can support people where and when it is needed most.
BCHPCA will use this report in our ongoing advocacy to strengthen the integration of hospice palliative care within the health system and to ensure that hospice societies are recognized as equal partners in the continuum of care across communities.
Read the full release from Statistics Canada here:
Living with a Life-Limiting Illness: A 2024 National Crowdsourced Study of Experiences and Access to Care
