Global Institute for Psychosocial, Palliative and End-of-Life Care (GIPPEC)

This week, the University of Toronto and the University Health Network (UHN) launched a new institute dedicated to end-of-life issues and the treatment of patients with life-threatening terminal diseases: the Global Institute for Psychosocial, Palliative and End-of-Life Care (GIPPEC).  



GIPPEC will have its formal inauguration in October 2014, and will be functioning within the next year. It will include a core staff of about six people, and will have numerous Canadian and international researchers contributing part-time.  It will be an interdepartmental and interdivisional research centre devoted to promoting and devising solutions to the medical, psychological, social, legal, ethical, cultural, and religious problems concerned with the treatment of patients with advanced and terminal diseases. The main goals of the institute include research, education, and knowledge mobilization.



Dr. Gary Rodin, Head of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN, and psychiatry professor at U of T, will serve as director of the institute.  Rodin stated: “Many of the important questions regarding palliative and end-of-life care lie at the interface of medicine and society, and must be addressed from medical, psychological, ethical, legal, economic, cultural, and other dimensions."