Home or hospital for relieving physical and emotional suffering of dying persons. In patients expected to live only months or weeks, hospice care offers an alternative to aggressive life-prolonging measures, which often only increase discomfort and isolation. Hospices provide a sympathetic environment in which prevention (not just control) of physical pain has top priority, along with patients' emotional and spiritual needs. Care may be provided in a health facility, on an outpatient basis, or at home.
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Born in l'Islet, P.Q., Lower Canada, the son of Germain-Alexandre Verreau and Ursule Fournier, Verreau left his classical course at the Quebec Seminary and taught at Ste Thérèse College. In 1857, he was appointed principal of the newly founded Jacques-Cartier Normal School, an office he held until his death. He was made a Lit.D. of Laval (1878) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1873 he was commissioned by the Quebec Government to investigate certain European archives for materials relating to Canadian history. Besides many contributions to the Historical Society of Montreal, of which he was the first president, and to the Royal Society of Canada, he published (1870-73) two volumes of memoirs concerning the invasion of Canada by the Americans.
He died in Montreal, Quebec in 1901.