Dr. Balfour Mount, father of palliative care, dies at 86

MONTRÉAL – Dr. Balfour Mount, widely recognized as the father of palliative care, is being remembered for his contribution to revolutionizing how people live out their final days.

Mount died on Sept. 25 in the palliative care unit that bears his name at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. He was 86.

McGill University paid tribute this week to Mount, who it said in 1975 launched the world’s first palliative care unit and service in Montreal. The university described the feat as “a groundbreaking initiative that became the template for global practice.” 

“Dr. Mount coined the term ‘palliative care’ to designate this novel combination of British hospice, American thanatology and Canadian academic medicine,” the university wrote.

Mount was born in Ottawa. He studied medicine at Queen’s University, then specialized in urology at McGill and in surgical oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the United States.

Throughout his career, he was interested in the distress experienced by terminally ill patients, and advocated an approach that went beyond curative care, emphasizing psychological and spiritual needs. 

In the 1970s, Mount travelled to the United Kingdom to learn more about end-of-life care, notably from Dr. Cicely Saunders, who created the hospice movement, which is in a way the basis of the palliative care we know today. 

The year after Mount founded the palliative care unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, he established the McGill University Biennial International Congress on Terminal Care, which he chaired until 2004.

Mount continued to be closely involved with McGill in the 1990s, notably by becoming the Eric M. Flanders Chair in Palliative Medicine and then the founding director of McGill’s holistic care program. 

His legacy in the field of palliative care is undeniable. According to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, in 2015, 67 per cent of acute care hospitals with more than 50 beds in North America had palliative care teams. 

Mount was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018. 

In a statement, Living with Dignity praised Mount as a pioneer in palliative care in Canada and internationally. Dr. Patrick Vinay, who worked alongside him over the years, said Mount saw “the suffering and loneliness lurking behind every patient at the end of life.”

“He understood that care had to extend beyond curative treatment. He also understood that the bond created between the patient and the caregiver must be maintained faithfully, even when healing is no longer possible,” Vinay said.

“He sought to provide comfort, share solace, and accompany vulnerable individuals so that they could make the most of the precious moments of life they had left with their loved ones.”

The director of the palliative care department at McGill University, Dr. Justin Sanders, said Mount challenged those in the profession to recognize the importance of building healing connections with people in their most vulnerable phases of life and illness.

“I am deeply inspired by all that Bal (Balfour’s nickname among his loved ones) did to transform health care in ways he certainly never envisioned or imagined. He did so with kindness, compassion, and considerable strength,” Sanders said in a statement.

“I believe that the best way to honour the extraordinary life of a visionary like Dr. Mount is to find the visionary within ourselves. In 50 years, I would like palliative care at McGill to be recognized not only for the contributions of its founder, but also for our own contributions to this essential work,” he added.

During his lifetime, Mount received numerous awards and distinctions for his contributions to medicine. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada and given the Order of Quebec. He also received an award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine for his lifetime achievements. And he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth 2 Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Three organizations have created awards in his honour: the American Journal of Hospice Care, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association. 

More recently, in 2020, Canada Post paid tribute to six Canadian doctors and researchers by featuring them on a new series of stamps, one of which was dedicated to Mount. 

Mount’s memoir, “Ten Thousand Crossroads: The Path as I Remember It,” was published in 2021.

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