Tribute: Dr Balfour Mount “Father of Palliative Care”
29th September 2025
Dr Balfour Mount, who has died aged 86, was a global pioneer who in 1975 launched the world’s first Palliative Care Unit and Service in Montreal, Canada.
In an interview by Devon Phillips published in 2018, Balfour Mount described how he learnt about Cicely Saunders and St. Christopher’s Hospice in London through the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross book, “On Death and Dying”, published in 1970. He resolved to contact Cicely Saunders, visit the hospice, and learn about the principles of hospice care and establish a similar service in Canada.
When he returned to Canada he set up a home care programme caring for around 100 patients in the community, an in-patient unit in the Royal Victoria Hospital, research and teaching programmes, and a bereavement support team. This new “Palliative Care Service” was the first use of the term ‘palliative care’. He said later:
“My francophone colleagues said that we could not use the term “hospice” because in France the word had a pejorative connotation that suggested a dumping ground of mediocrity of care, signifying the worst of nursing homes.”
The term palliative care was adopted worldwide to describe the new medical specialty, based on the principles of Cicely Saunders, and became the foundation of a worldwide movement.
Director of the Royal Victoria Hospital Palliative Care Service, Palliative Care McGill, and the McGill Programs in Integrated Whole Person Care, Dr. Mount was the Eric M. Flanders Emeritus Professor of Palliative Care at McGill University. In 1985, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of “having founded the first Palliative Care Service at Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital.” In 2003, he was promoted to Officer in recognition of being “the father of palliative care in North America.” In 1988, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
Professor Irene Higginson, Scientific Director of Cicely Saunders International said:
“Balfour Mount was the first person in North America to found a full palliative care service—comprehensive, researched, taught—in Montreal. Cicely Saunders, whom he admired deeply and counted among his mentors, always spoke warmly of him. She recognised in him not just a kindred spirit, but someone who took the lessons from her research and education. He took the notion of “total pain” that she developed and carried it forward, embedding compassion, dignity and whole-person care into medicine. Balfour made palliative care work in practice in Canada, and helped the spread the word about palliative care helping people to live well even in advanced illness, not only in Canada but across the world.”