Dr. Amit Arya is a palliative medicine physician at the Brampton Civic Hospital. His practice encompasses the "four pillars of palliative care" which includes work on the Acute Palliative Care Unit, inpatient Palliative Medicine Consult Team, the Supportive and Palliative Care Clinic, and the community visiting service that involves visiting patients in their homes, long-term care facilities, or hospice. Dr. Arya also holds faculty positions at McMaster University and the University of Toronto, through which he supervises medical students and residents. Additionally, he is a member of the Diversity Advisory Council at William Osler Health System and a committee at the Central West LHIN to improve palliative care and how it is delivered in long term care facilities. Along with teaching and research, Dr. Arya is interested in the use of Point of Care Ultrasound in the palliative care population, improving how palliative care is delivered to long-term care patients, and the delivery of palliative care for patients in racialized populations.
“As a palliative medicine physician, I provide treatment to any patient with a serious illness. I work as part of an interdisciplinary team which includes other physicians, nurses, social workers, spiritual care and dieticians. The approach I provide is holistic and includes symptom assessment, providing psychosocial & spiritual support, facilitating discussions around goals of care, and supporting the patient in the broader context of their family and community as well.
All patient experiences in the context of where I work are quite impactful. In particular, I’m always struck by some of the scenarios where social isolation has been a big part of the disease journey. I try my best to strongly advocate for those patients and I feel that decreasing social isolation is one of the biggest forms of harm reduction.
I do recall caring for a gentleman who used to come in to the palliative care clinic on a weekly basis to have a procedure done. He did have liver cirrhosis from alcoholism and he had no family or friends. When we saw him, we would not only help to relieve symptoms through the procedure but spent a lot of time talking about his traumatic life experiences and providing psychosocial support. It was up to our service and team to support him until the end of life. This was one of the most emotionally fulfilling experiences so far in my career, where I was able to help this gentleman through such a challenging time.
With regards to my own goals going forward, I have been presenting at several workshops locally, provincially and nationally. These have focused on the influence of culture on goals of care discussions. I hope to expand the workshops I provide to other subject areas of interest such as palliative care in long-term care, and Point of Care Ultrasound. Most importantly, I would like to add that I am very blessed to be a part of such a supportive team of physicians and other healthcare providers who have supported and guided me to get up to this point in my career.
If I had the power to implement one change, in the health care system, this would be a focus on upstream care for vulnerable populations. A lot of what we focus on now is based on downstream care; where someone is already ill and we try to rescue them, treat their illness, and that’s it. We need more holistic solutions that are focused on the social determinants of health, which means: Does the patient have an income? Do they have food on the table? What is their understanding of their healthcare condition and expectations of what the healthcare system will provide? How is this influenced by their previous healthcare experiences and perhaps even experiences in another country? Even looking back further, what is their level of trust with people who have more knowledge or power than them, such as people they may encounter in the healthcare system? How does that influence their healthcare decision making? Is there a history of mistrust or abuse between those in power or with more knowledge in certain populations?”
Comments