In the spirit of promoting the culture and mission of each organization, the CCHCE can provide sustained assistance in the identification of your ethical needs. Each unique organization can develop an integrated ethics program that is reflective of its reality and available ethics resources. The identification of ethical needs is multi-layered, from individual patient/client/resident and staff ethical concerns, to organizational ethical concerns..

Effective mechanisms for addressing ethical concerns depend on leadership support, expertise, time, resources, and formal policies. The CCHCE will provide support in the development or revision of ethics-related policies, including policies pertaining to the ethics framework and use of ethics services. The CCHCE may also participate in organizational priority setting and strategic planning processes, as well as provide support to organizations in meeting Accreditation Canada ethics standards. More specifically, support can be provided to revise, develop, implement, and make clinical and organizational ethics framework(s) known, or to refine the values and mission statement of the organization.

Capacity building and ethics education play a central role in supporting a positive workplace environment and culture for any organization. Each organization will work with a CCHCE ethicist to determine what kind of capacity-building is required. Specific sessions can be organized, discussing topics such as how to use an ethics framework, moral distress, living at risk, or end of life ethics. Resources such as info cards and posters can also be developed. Organizational partners also have access to Regional resources, such as Regional Ethics Rounds, the Quarterly Newsletter, and the Annual Symposium.

Ethics consultations aim to help patients/clients/residents, families, staff, and other stakeholders resolve ethical concerns in order to improve health-care quality. Ethics consultation support from the CCHCE will be based on a modified “hub-and-spokes” model. Consultations will be provided by an individual ethics consultant, with a secondary goal of developing organizational capacity to address less-complex issues without ethicist support. If necessary, support can also be provided to help organizations develop an ethics committee. The Regional Ethicist can serve as an advisor to that committee or serve on the committee on an ad-hoc basis.