Palliative care in Toronto: how to find the right care

If a doctor has just used the word "palliative" about someone you love, you're probably somewhere between numb and frantic. Most families hear that word and think it means the end is days away. It usually doesn't. Palliative care is comfort-focused care, and it can run alongside treatment for months or even years. Families who get it early almost always say the same thing afterward: they wish they'd started sooner.

Finding palliative care in Toronto is confusing for a specific reason. There's no single waiting list and no one office that runs it all. Care happens in four different places, funded and accessed in different ways, and nobody hands you a map.

This guide is that map. You'll find Toronto's residential hospices, with addresses and phone numbers. You'll also find what care costs under OHIP, the number that starts the process, and what to ask when you're comparing options. That number takes calls from families directly, with no doctor required.

One note on the list: it's a list, not a ranking. Several of Toronto's hospices serve specific populations, children, people living with HIV, people experiencing homelessness. "Best" isn't a meaningful idea across a set like that. What matters is who the patient is and what they need, so the list flags those differences plainly.

Palliative care in Toronto at a glance

Before the detail, here's the whole landscape on one screen. Most families end up using more than one of these over time, often starting at home and moving later.

The single most useful fact in this guide: you do not need a doctor's permission to start. Ontario Health atHome accepts referrals from almost anyone, including the patient and the family directly.

What palliative care actually is (and what it isn't)

The biggest source of fear here is a misunderstanding, so it's worth clearing up first.

Palliative care is care aimed at comfort and quality of life for someone with a serious, life-limiting illness. It treats pain, nausea, breathlessness, anxiety, and exhaustion. It also supports the family, not just the patient.

What it is not: a decision to stop treatment. In Ontario, palliative care can run at the same time as chemotherapy, dialysis, or heart failure management. It is not the same thing as hospice, either, though the words get used interchangeably. Hospice usually means a specific place, a residence, for the final weeks. Palliative care is the approach, and it can happen anywhere.

If your family is having the harder conversation underneath all of this, about what your parent actually wants, our guide on how to talk to parents about end-of-life wishes covers how to open it without it turning into a fight.

Where you can receive palliative care in Toronto

There's no single right answer here, and families change their minds as things progress. That's normal, and the system expects it. Ontario delivers palliative care in four settings.

At home. The most common choice, and the one most people say they want. A care coordinator arranges nursing visits, personal support workers, equipment like a hospital bed, and pain management. It works well when someone is at home with the patient. It gets hard when the main caregiver is working full-time or lives in another city.

A residential hospice. A home-like residence staffed around the clock, designed for the final weeks rather than the final year. Most have private rooms and no visiting-hour limits. These places are small, often around 10 beds, so ask about the wait at your first conversation rather than at the point of crisis.

A hospital palliative care unit. Best when symptoms are complicated and need daily medical attention. Several Toronto hospitals run dedicated units, and the team treating your parent is the route in.

A long-term care home. If your parent already lives in one, palliative care is usually delivered there by the home's own team, and moving isn't necessary. Their existing co-payment covers food and accommodation, not the palliative care itself. If that's your situation, our guide to what happens when someone passes away in a nursing home covers what follows.

Hospices and palliative care centres in Toronto

Here are the residential hospices serving Toronto, with what each one does and how to reach it. Read the "who it serves" column first: several of these are specialized, and it will rule most of them in or out quickly.

A few things worth knowing about the list:

• Kensington Hospice is a residence in a converted historical building on a quiet downtown street, operated by Kensington Health.
• Dorothy Ley Hospice runs a 10-bed residence in Etobicoke, and also offers in-home support, caregiver programs, and grief and loss support that you can use without ever using a bed.
• Casey House is not a conventional hospice but a specialty HIV hospital with 14 private inpatient rooms. Founded in 1988 by June Callwood and others, it was the first freestanding HIV/AIDS facility in Canada, and it has since grown beyond end-of-life care into broader treatment.
• Journey Home Hospice has 10 beds and exists for people who are homeless, a group that historically had nowhere to go for end-of-life care.
• Emily's House is Toronto's first children's hospice, with 10 beds. It opened in 2013 and provides paediatric palliative care and medical respite, plus sibling and caregiver support, through the Philip Aziz Centre.
• Ian Anderson House sits in Oakville rather than Toronto, but it serves families in the western GTA and is often the practical option from Mississauga or Etobicoke.

There's also a day hospice, which is easy to miss and useful earlier in the illness: Kensington Health's Second Mile Club at 45 Brunswick Ave (416-597-0841) offers daytime programs and respite without an overnight stay.

Hospital palliative care units in Toronto

If symptoms need daily medical management, a hospital unit may be the better fit than a residence. Toronto hospitals with dedicated inpatient palliative care units include:

• Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (University Health Network), a 12-bed unit focused on cancer patients needing pain and symptom management or end-of-life care
• Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Ave, on the first floor of K-Wing, with a mix of private and semi-private rooms
• Michael Garron Hospital (Toronto East Health Network), a short-stay palliative care unit within its complex continuing care services

You can't self-refer to these. The hospital team treating your parent makes the referral, which is why asking for a palliative care consult while they're still admitted matters so much.

Availability changes constantly, and this list can go out of date. These are the main residential hospices, not every palliative program in the city: Toronto Grace Health Centre runs a palliative care program, Hospice Toronto provides volunteer-based support in the home, and smaller community programs operate across Scarborough and North York. Before you plan around any of it, confirm what's currently available with the care coordinator or the provincial directory below.

How to access palliative care in Toronto: the referral path

This is the part families get stuck on, usually because they're waiting for a doctor to start the process. You don't have to wait.

Call Ontario Health atHome at 1-833-515-1234. That's the provincial organization that coordinates home and community care, including palliative care. According to its own guidance on making a referral, anyone can make one: a family doctor, a friend, a family member, a caregiver, a neighbour, or the patient themselves. You'll be asked about the situation, then connected with a care coordinator who assesses needs and arranges services.

Here's what to expect once you call:

1. An intake conversation. Have the health card number, the diagnosis, the treating doctor's name, and a plain description of what's hardest right now.
2. An assessment. A care coordinator reviews medical needs, the home setup, and who's available to help.
3. A care plan. Services are arranged: nursing, personal support, equipment, and pain management.
4. Ongoing review. The plan changes as needs change. Say so when it stops fitting.

Two other routes work in parallel. The family doctor can refer to specialist palliative services directly. And if your parent is in hospital right now, ask the hospital team for a palliative care consult before discharge. That is by far the fastest way in, and it's the step most families find out about too late.

To look up specific services near a postal code, the HPCO Directory of Services is the official provincial directory, run by Hospice Palliative Care Ontario. It lists hospices and community programs by community, which is more current than any list we could publish here.

What palliative care costs in Ontario

Money is a fair thing to worry about, and the answer here is better than most families expect.

There is no cost to patients for medically necessary palliative care services at home, in a hospice, or in a hospital. That's the Government of Ontario's own wording. It covers nursing, physician visits, personal support, and the care itself.

What you may still pay for:

• Most prescription medications, though the Ontario Drug Benefit covers many people over 65 and those on certain programs
• Personal items, comfort items, and some supplies
• Transportation and parking
• Privately hired extra caregiving hours beyond the funded amount

That last one is where budgets actually get strained. Publicly funded personal support hours are capped, and families who want overnight coverage often top it up privately. Ask the care coordinator directly what the funded hours look like, and plan around the gap rather than discovering it.

For caregivers, the Ontario Caregiver Helpline runs 24/7 at 1-833-416-CARE (2273). It's free, and it exists for exactly the 3 a.m. version of this.

How to choose between hospice, home care, and a hospital unit

There's no wrong choice, and families who change settings partway through haven't failed at anything. The right answer is mostly about three practical questions rather than about which place is "best."

How complex are the symptoms? Well-managed pain can usually be handled at home. Symptoms that shift daily, or need injectable medication adjusted often, point toward a hospice or hospital unit.

Who is actually there? Home care assumes someone is present between visits. If you're the only child and you live in Calgary, home care will likely strain in a way nobody warns you about. Be honest about this early. It's not a failure of love to say you can't be there overnight.

What does your parent want? Ask directly if you can. Many people are clear that they want to be at home, and many others are quietly relieved at the idea of professional care around the clock. You won't know unless you ask.

Questions to ask when you're comparing options

Whoever you're talking to, these get you real answers:

• What's the current wait, and what happens if things change faster than that?
• How many funded personal support hours would we get, and what's the process to increase them?
• Who do we call at 2 a.m., and does a real person answer?
• Can family stay overnight?
• What happens if we start at home and need to move?
• How is pain managed after regular hours?

What happens as the end approaches

This is the part nobody prepares you for, and it's worth knowing in advance so it's less frightening in the moment.

The care team will talk with you about what to expect in the final days, and they'll usually tell you when they think you should call family in. Ask them to be direct. Most will be, if you make it clear you want that.

You'll also be asked, at some point, whether arrangements have been made for after. Families often find this question jarring, but there's a practical reason for it: when someone passes away at home or in a hospice, the care team needs to know who to call. Having a name and number ready means nobody is searching the internet at 4 a.m.

Making that call in advance changes very little about your parent's care, and it removes one decision from the hardest day. You can arrange it and then not think about it again. If you want to understand what the days immediately after look like, our guide on what to do when someone dies in Ontario walks through the sequence.

Where Cleo fits, and where it doesn't

Cleo doesn't provide palliative care, and won't pretend otherwise. Ontario Health atHome, the hospices, and the hospital teams above are who you want for that, and they're the ones to call first.

What Cleo does is the part that comes after: direct cremation, at one fixed, all-inclusive price, across Ontario and Quebec. Some families call us early, not because anything is urgent, but so the number is already saved for whenever it's needed. Plenty of families don't, and that's fine too. Starting palliative care doesn't mean you need to think about this yet. If and when you do, there's no cost to have the conversation and nothing to sign.

If you'd rather settle it properly in advance, planning ahead takes a few minutes and holds today's price. If you'd rather just know what's included and what it costs, that's on our direct cremation page. And if cremation isn't what your family wants, we'll tell you that and point you elsewhere.

Common questions about palliative care in Toronto

Do I need a doctor's referral to start palliative care?

No. Ontario Health atHome accepts referrals from anyone, including you or your parent directly. Call 1-833-515-1234. A family doctor or hospital team can also refer, and a hospital consult is usually the fastest route if your parent is admitted right now.

Is palliative care free in Ontario?

Medically necessary palliative care is free at home, in a hospice, and in a hospital. You may still pay for most medications, personal items, transportation, and any privately hired caregiving hours beyond the funded amount.

Does starting palliative care mean stopping treatment?

No. In Ontario, palliative care can run alongside active treatment like chemotherapy or dialysis. It focuses on comfort and symptom control, not on ending care.

How long can someone receive palliative care?

There's no fixed limit. Some people receive it for years, others for weeks. Starting earlier generally means better symptom control and less crisis, which is why care teams push families not to wait.

What's the difference between palliative care and hospice?

Palliative care is the approach and can happen anywhere. Hospice usually refers to a residence for the final weeks. Every hospice provides palliative care, but most palliative care happens outside one.

Which hospices are there in Toronto?

Toronto's residential hospices are Kensington Hospice (downtown), Dorothy Ley Hospice (Etobicoke), Casey House (downtown, for people living with HIV), Journey Home Hospice (downtown, for people experiencing homelessness), and Emily's House (Riverdale, for children). Ian Anderson House in Oakville serves the western GTA. See the full list above for addresses and phone numbers.

How do I find out which hospice has space right now?

Ask the Ontario Health atHome care coordinator, who tracks current availability, or search the HPCO Directory of Services at findhospicecare.ca by community. Capacity changes week to week, so a live source beats any published list, including this one.

You're not behind

Getting palliative care in Toronto started is easier than it looks from the outside, whatever point you're at. If you're reading this a week after the diagnosis, you're not late. If you're reading it the night before a discharge meeting, you're not too late either. The referral line takes calls from families directly, and starting the conversation costs nothing.

One call to Ontario Health atHome at 1-833-515-1234 is the whole first step. Everything else follows from the assessment.

And when you get to the part that comes after, we're here for that. A real person answers, 24/7, in English or French. Months later, if the government paperwork is still dragging, you can still call us: that's not a sales line, it's what aftercare actually looks like.

(438) 817-1770