Community engagement in public health palliative care: A comparative ethnographic study of two culturally distinct compassionate communities in Canada
Émilie Lessard, Isabelle Marcoux, Serge Daneault, Lise Jean, Cynthia Lapointe, Dale Weil, Ghislaine Rouly, Libby Sallnow, Allan Kellehear, Antoine Boivin · 2025
Read Community engagement in public health palliative care: A comparative ethnographic study of two culturally distinct compassionate communities in Canada by Émilie Lessard, Isabelle Marcoux, Serge Daneault, Lise Jean, Cynthia Lapointe, Dale Weil, Ghislaine Rouly, Libby Sallnow, Allan Kellehear, Antoine Boivin (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12708986.txt.
Description
Émilie Lessard and co-authors compared how two Canadian compassionate communities engage their neighborhoods in end-of-life support, in a 2025 ethnographic study. Compassionate communities are a public health movement that builds local support around dying, death, and grief. The two sites, both in Montréal, differ culturally: a downtown district and a suburban island area.
The team observed, interviewed, and kept logbooks in both places. The downtown group grew from the grassroots, sharing leadership and building trust until it could stand as its own nonprofit. The island group, facing prior distrust of institutions, was led by an organization and survived by embedding a permanent staff role inside it. The authors conclude there is no single right model; engagement must fit local patterns of trust and power.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Émilie Lessard, Isabelle Marcoux, Serge Daneault, Lise Jean, Cynthia Lapointe, Dale Weil, Ghislaine Rouly, Libby Sallnow, Allan Kellehear, Antoine Boivin |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 71 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |