Canadian Virtual Hospice | Solv Communications

Case Study

Canadian Virtual Hospice

Sharing compassion & support via online resources.

The Canadian Virtual Hospice is an award-winning charitable organization that serves the information and support needs of more than 2.4 million people each year. It is the most comprehensive online source of information on advanced illness, palliative care, and grief resources.

The Canadian Virtual Hospice reached out to Solv Communications in 2018 to help it achieve more recognition for its worthy work. Over the years, Solv Communications has helped initiate nation-wide PR campaigns that have produced excellent news coverage positioning its invaluable resources in the hearts and minds of Canadians.

We’ve also partnered with the Canadian Virtual Hospice to urge the Government of Canada and the provinces and territories to bolster the country’s grief services to meet the growing demand.

In This Video

Adam Rapoport – Pediatric Palliative Care Specialist – SickKids Hospital Toronto

The Challenge

Imagine that you are a parent caring for a seriously ill child, or you’re a young adult diagnosed with a life-limiting illness, where do you turn for information that you can trust?

The Canadian Virtual Hospice is on a mission to address these gaps in trusted online content by providing digital guidance from leading healthcare specialists across North America; online video clips; articles; as well as available programs and services.

With the goal of reaching a national audience with their invaluable resources, they trusted the team at Solv Communications to help them achieve their goals.

The Solution

Many organizations give time and talent to worthy causes. But few can achieve all the recognition they deserve as well as the Canadian Virtual Hospice. Solv Communications is helping to ensure that news about its online resources like LivingOutLoud.Life; KidsGrief.ca; 2SLGBTQ+; and CaringTogether.life are recognized throughout Canada.

Every event produced excellent earned media coverage – including national newspapers, radio, television, magazine and Web – that favourably positioned the Canadian Virtual Hospice’s resources in the minds of Canadians who needed them the most.

Here’s a snapshot of some of the national media coverage and how we helped fill a vital gap in online resources and support needs of people living with life-limiting illness, their families and caregivers, health providers, researchers, and educators.

Results & impact

Since 2018, Solv Communications has secured hundreds of media hits. Our partnership together with the Canadian Virtual Hospice has resulted in strengthened public awareness and adoption of its online resources.

In 2019, the Government of Canada contributed $2 million in funding to expand existing virtual services providing information about palliative care and grief support for underserved communities, including families caring for a dying child, francophones, and LGBTQ2 communities.

When you’re a parent of a seriously ill or dying child, there are few places you can turn to for help and guidance. That’s why our Virtual Hospice team developed an online resource for Canadian families. Designing a great product is only the first step – we had to ensure that the content reached our intended recipients. That’s why we partnered with Nicole Harris and Solv Communications.

After getting to know our unique organization and product, Solv created a media strategy to ensure success. They identified ideal media outlets to showcase our work to the broadest possible audience and then used their connections and skills to secure the needed coverage.

Solv then provided us with talking points to help ensure that our intended message was conveyed no matter how the interview was conducted. Finally, Solv Communications helped me overcome my personal discomfort with media engagements by preparing me for each interview. I’m really proud of the important and unique resource we created.

Thanks to Solv Communications, Canadian families in need of this resource know that it exists!