Ethics Consultation Service
The Ethics Consultation Service at Bruyère is here to support patients, residents, families, and staff who are making challenging healthcare decisions, in situations where there seems to be no easy answer.
What is Ethics?
We all face challenging decisions in our lives. Our values, principles and personal beliefs all contribute to our own decision-making process. Most of the time, we can make decisions ourselves, or with support from family, friends, and colleagues.
However, when dealing with complicated or emotionally charged healthcare decisions, it is not unusual for our definition of “the most reasonable course of action” to differ from someone else’s and this may lead to conflicting expectations between the healthcare team, the client/patient/resident, or family members.
Ethics is the rational examination of these different perspectives, to reach an understanding of the most acceptable outcome in a given situation.
Ethical dilemmas that warrant consultation may stem from topics such as:
- Medical treatment decisions
- End of life care
- Decision making for a patient who can’t make decisions for themselves
- Consent and Capacity
- Goals of care and treatment decisions
- Complex discharging planning
The Ethics Consultation Service can help:
- Identify and clarify the ethical issue at hand
- Evaluate the outcomes and possible consequence of the decision made
- Find commonalities and propose alternate solutions
- Review the rights of those working in and receiving healthcare
What does the Ethics Consultation Service not offer?
The Bruyère Ethics Consultation Service cannot make decisions for you or tell you what is “right” and “wrong”. The final decision can only be made by the person who is deemed to be the most appropriate decision maker in a particular case.
Moreover, the Ethics Consultation Service is not the “morality police”.
Contact us!
The Ethics Consultation Service is confidential and offered free of charge.
The Ethics Consultation Service is not equipped to respond in emergency situations but will make every attempt to be available for consultation during regular business hours.
For further information or to request consultation, please contact a member of the interdisciplinary treatment team or the Director of Clinical Ethics at 613-562-6262, ext. 1051.