Pilgrim Project

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The Pilgrim Project

The Pilgrim Project, (TPP) a community Hospice Program, founded informally in 1976 and formally registered in 1978 by Dr. Brendan Cavanaugh and his wife, psychologist Dorinda Cavanaugh, to respond to the personal emotive (psychosocial) needs of the then emerging population of Cancer patients of Montreal.

See the services we provide, or find out how to become a volunteer pilgrim.

History of Caregiving

For the sake of clarity, four distinct modes of human social behavior regarding the giving of care to the ill are generally recognized. As distinguished one from one another they are: doctoring, nursing and caregiving and social service. Historically speaking, caregiving has the longest tradition, doctoring comes next and nursing comes in third and social work is the most recently identified group. That is, caregiving begins with the founding of the human family; the history of doctoring can arguably be said to begin with the Egyptians; and the history of nursing begins with Florence Nightingale, and the formal structuring of social work is said to credited to Jane Addams.

The terms that describe that activities of doctors and nurses and social workers have become defined and fixed as these three human activities have become professional and structured. The terms, which name the various human activities characteristic of those who devote themselves to the very humane acts of caregiving, have not been formalized in the same way as those of doctoring and nursing and social work. The terms that identify the acts of caregiving remain elements of common speech because caregiving has not become as professionalized or as structured as the other three ways of looking after ill people.

Caregiving remains one of the last domains of the individual. While the human needs of the patient as a person are objective, the style in which the particular caregiver chooses to respond to them remains unique to that individual.

The Pilgrim Project is devoted to supporting those individuals who choose to make caregiving a significant part of their lives. The History of Caregiving is another topic which may be added for those who would like to understand the background of this profoundly important aspect of personal human life.