Meet the Team
The Palliative and Supportive Care Service has a dedicated, compassionate and multidisciplinary team devoted to providing holistic care to patients. Together, they are committed to providing palliative and supportive care during any stage of serious illness. It takes a team!
The Palliative and Supportive Care Service team includes physicians, outreach physicians, nurses and social workers, Patient Experience Partners, and administration. Meet our team and read what palliative and supportive care means to each of them:
Dr. Valerie Caraiscos
“Palliative care means compassion and empathy. It encompasses pain and symptom relief and psychosocial support delivered in a patient- and family-centred manner to provide high quality care.”
Dr. Amanda Rosenblum
“Palliative care is person-centered care that aims to relieve suffering for someone living with a serious illness.”
Dr. Amit Arya
“Palliative care encapsulates the physical, social spiritual and psychological domains of patients’ and families’ experiences. It emphasizes quality of life and freedom from suffering.”
Dr. Tziporah Cohen Psychiatrist
“Palliative care is compassion, dignity, and the alleviation of suffering.”
Dr. Daphna Grossman
“Palliative care is surrounding patients and families with a compassionate community providing holistic care.”
Dr. Desmond Leung
“In palliative care, it is an honour to bear witness.”
Dr. Niren Shetty
“Palliative care is care of an individual with a life-limiting or life-threatening illness that prioritizes comfort and quality of life. Various aspects of palliative care can, and should be, addressed by any member of the health care team, but also by family, friends and the entire community.”
Dr. Grace Ma
“Palliative care is taking care of patients as a whole, helping them live their lives to the fullest, no matter where they are in their disease trajectory.”
Dr. Anand Sinha
“At its heart, palliative care is about providing dignity and comfort to those with serious illness and their loved ones”
Dr. Noam Berlin
“Palliative care is providing comprehensive, holistic care for patients with life-threatening illness and their families, including pain and symptom management (physical and psychosocial), care decision making and planning for the future, and coordinating supports as needed, adapting care to wherever are patients are in the course of their illness.”
Dr. Sandy Buchman, Medical Director & Freeman Family Chair in Palliative Care
“Palliative care is a holistic, inter-professional approach to health care for those experiencing life-limiting illness. It focuses on alleviating human suffering in all its domains – physical, psychosocial & spiritual – for patients and their loved ones with dignity and compassion.”
Dr. Dahlia Balaban
“Palliative care is about giving comfort to patients and their families when they need it the most. It’s a patient-centred approach that emphasizes care for both the mind and body.”
Dr. Seema Agarwal
“Palliative care is a multidisciplinary team approach to provide compassionate and supportive care for patients during a vulnerable stage of their life as they face terminal illness. It focuses on pain and symptom management to allow patients to live their best quality of life that is in line with their goals of care. It is a privilege to provide Palliative Care.”
Dr. Karen Weisz
“Palliative care is redefining hope, improving quality of life, and supporting patients and families through difficult times.”
Dr. Risa Bordman
“A palliative approach to care allows primary care providers to take care of their patients from birth to the end of life.
Dr. Mervyn Jackson
“Palliative care is a holistic team approach for patients facing a terminal illness, with emphasis on pain and other symptom management.”
Dr. Amanda Li
“Palliative care is a multidisciplinary and holistic approach to pain and symptom management with the goal of improving a person’s quality of life. Simply put, palliative care is just good medicine.”
LiYang Liu
“Palliative care is a care philosophy that focuses on the quality of life of patients and their families. It helps patient live as actively as possible and supports families through difficult times.”
Dr. Dahlia Pankowski
“Palliative care is having the privilege to be part of a family towards the end of life to ensure that they are supported physically and emotionally every step of the way.”
Dr. Amit Arya
“Palliative care encapsulates the physical, social spiritual and psychological domains of patients’ and families’ experiences. It emphasizes quality of life and freedom from suffering.”
Dr. Noam Berlin
“Palliative care is providing comprehensive, holistic care for patients with life-threatening illness and their families, including pain and symptom management (physical and psychosocial), care decision making and planning for the future, and coordinating supports as needed, adapting care to wherever are patients are in the course of their illness.”
Dr. Desmond Leung
“In palliative care, it is an honour to bear witness.”
Dr. Sandy Buchman, Medical Director & Freeman Family Chair in Palliative Care
“Palliative care is a holistic, inter-professional approach to health care for those experiencing life-limiting illness. It focuses on alleviating human suffering in all its domains – physical, psychosocial & spiritual – for patients and their loved ones with dignity and compassion.”
Shannon Poyntz, Nurse Practitioner, Supportive Care Clinic
“Palliative care is listening to, respecting and supporting patient and family wishes to enhance comfort and quality of life.”
Sarah Yip, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Inpatient
“Palliative care is a team approach, where each discipline views the patient and family from a different lens but walks with them and provides support on this journey.”
Marsha Butler, Social Worker
“Palliative care is patient- and family-centred care that promotes quality of life.”
Karen Lock, Nurse Practitioner, The Edwin S.H. Leong Geriatric Supportive Care Outreach Program
“Palliative care is an approach to care for anyone living with a serious illness with unpleasant symptoms. It doesn’t mean the end is near. It’s all about having good care, good symptom control, good support for the individuals and their loved ones, and good working partnerships with the various health care team members so that the person with the illness can live better.”
Kata Mrazovac, Registered Nurse, Palliative Care Clinic
“Palliative care is patient- and family-centred care that promotes quality of life and ensures dignity.”
Tina Parassakis, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Outreach
“Palliative care is transforming the way we live. Palliative care is quality, and not quantity.”
Gillian Sammy, Social Worker
“Palliative care is active collaboration between patients, families, and the health care team that strives to optimize a person’s quality of life. It is a person-centered approach that encourages ongoing communication and empathy toward patients’ needs, values, and wishes, ensuring that they feel dignified and supported throughout care.”
Carolyn Willson, Nurse Practitioner
“Palliative and Supportive Care is a holistic approach to helping people with a life limiting illness to live well”
Michelle Hannikainen
“Palliative care is care for the body, mind and spirit of the patient and family.”
Judy Katz
“Palliative care gives comfort, not only to the patient, but to all those who love and care for them. Nothing is worse than watching a loved one suffer.”
Brenda Albuqerque-Boutillier
“Palliative care is a holistic approach to improving the quality of life of patients and their caregivers.”
Dr. Sandy Buchman, Medical Director & Freeman Family Chair in Palliative Care
“Palliative care is a holistic, inter-professional approach to health care for those experiencing life-limiting illness. It focuses on alleviating human suffering in all its domains – physical, psychosocial spiritual – for patients and their loved ones with dignity and compassion.”
Linh Chau, Administrative Assistant
“Palliative care is improvement in quality of life for both patient and family members through continuous compassionate support.”
May Huang, Unit Secretary
“Palliative Care is holistic care that involves health care providers and family members to promote better quality of life for patients.”
Florence Betudio, Unit Secretary
“Palliative and supportive care is not about giving up; it’s about giving more—more comfort, more dignity, more quality of life, and more support for patients and their families.”
Sandra Beattie, Project Coordinator
“Palliative care is holistic care – providing compassion, comfort, meaning, dignity and support for people facing the end of life and for their loved ones.”
Carla Moran-Venegas, Clinical Team Manager
“The Palliative Care approach optimizes quality of life and minimizes suffering for patients experiencing a life-limiting illness. Our team supports patients and their loved ones by addressing their needs holistically, throughout their entire end journey.”
Jo-Ann Fernando, Clinical Team Manager
“Palliative and Supportive Care is compassionate connected care between patients and their families and their health care partners.”
Marina Bitton, Director Cancer Care, Critical Care & Cardiology Programs
“Palliative care is about partnering with patients and families facing a serious life-limiting illness, with a patient/family defined goals of improving their lives at all stages of their illness. It is about striving for excellence, innovation, and provision of care with compassion and empathy.”
