World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2025
Achieving the Promise: Universal Access to Palliative Care
Every October, communities around the world unite to recognize World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) — a global movement to advance understanding, accessibility, and compassion for those living with serious or life-limiting illness.
This year’s theme, “Achieving the Promise: Universal Access to Palliative Care,” speaks directly to what Calvary has always believed — that every person deserves comfort, dignity, and love at every stage of life.
For more than a century, our commitment has been grounded in our values: Comfort, Care, Commitment, Dignity and Non-abandonement.
Living Our Mission Every Day
Hospice:
Calvary Hospice is an at-home, certified service of Calvary that provides care and support in the home for terminally ill patients and their families. It focuses on everyone’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs and pain management and symptom relief for the patient. Working with your healthcare providers, Calvary Hospice is for someone when they have been given a life expectancy of six-months or less. Everyone’s circumstances are unique and no one’s journey is the same.
Community-Based Palliative Care
At Calvary, we believe that expert care and human connection go hand in hand. Our interdisciplinary community-based Palliative Care team includes physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, and chaplains who work closely with each patient’s care providers. Palliative care is a specialized medical approach that can be provided at any stage of a serious illness, including alongside curative treatments. The goal of this simultaneous or “concurrent” care is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and their family by relieving symptoms and stress. Calvary’s goal is simple but profound: to provide support, bring relief, understanding, and reassurance to patients and the people who love them.
As the only fully accredited acute care hospital in the U.S. devoted exclusively to adult palliative care, Calvary stands as a model for what compassionate end-of-life care can and should be.
Expanding CalvaryCare® Across New York
As the world strives for universal access to palliative care, Calvary is leading the way here at home. Our home hospice and palliative care programs now serve families across The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Nassau County, Westchester County, and Rockland County — expanding access to the gold standard of compassionate care.
Calvary is working to meet patients where they are, bringing our century-old mission into more living rooms, more neighborhoods, and more hearts across New York.
A Shared Promise — and an Open Invitation
More than ten years after the World Health Assembly’s landmark resolution to strengthen palliative care globally, Calvary remains steadfast in fulfilling that vision — ensuring that no one faces illness or the end of life alone or in pain.
On this World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, we invite our community to connect with us — to learn about Calvary’s programs, request resources, or speak with a member of our compassionate care team.
Resources & Referrals
View our Patient and Family Guides: Patient and Family Guide (English) | Hospicio a Domicilio de Calvary (Español)
Our staff is ready to answer questions, clarify criteria for admission, and help you welcome a loved one to Calvary.
Admissions to Home Care and Hospice
For admission to Hospice, please contact Calvary Hospice at 718-518-2465
Referring a Patient
For physicians referring a patient to Calvary Hospital,, contact our Referral Specialists at 718-518-2300
Personalized Assistance
Our Community Outreach Staff is available Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. at 718-518-2300
Together, We Achieve the Promise
As we observe World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, Calvary reaffirms its mission — to bring comfort, dignity, and love to every patient and family we serve, and to help make the promise of universal palliative care a reality for all.