The Eastern Counties Hospice Palliative and End-of-Life Care Network serves the five most easterly counties in Ontario: Stormont, Dundas, Glengarry, Prescott and Russell, covering approximately 5,305 square kilometers. The Eastern Counties are largely made up of small rural communities with the presence of only two urban centres: The City of Cornwall and the Town of Hawkesbury.

Cutting across the counties is the 417, a four-lane highway connecting Ottawa to the Québec border. On the far South, following the St-Lawrence River is Highway 401 and on the far North is Highway 17 which follows the Ottawa River. Travelling time from the most easterly point to Ottawa, the most frequently used referral centre, is in excess of one and a half hours. The combination of small rural communities and a large geographic area make provision of inter-community transportation uneconomical and pose many challenges when planning and providing health and other related services.

According to the 2006 Canada Census, the population of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry is 110,399 and Presott and Russell is 80,184 for a total of 190,583 for all five Eastern Counties. Population growth has shown a slight
increase between 2001 and 2006. There is a large Francophone community throughout the district. French is the mother tongue of 44% of the population. It is the majority language in Prescott and Russell counties at 76% and 67% respectively, and a significant minority in Glengarry at 38% and Stormont at 30%. English is the mother tongue of 53% of the population, ranging from a high of 90% in Dundas County, to a low of 21% in Prescott County. (2001 Census data)

There are also many Dutch and Swiss families in the Eastern Counties. Cornwall Island in Akwesasne is home to citizens of Canada's First Nations - A Mohawk territory.