ROTARY MOMENT
None tonight.
GUEST SPEAKERS : Donna McFarlane and Jill Richardson – Durham Region Hospice
Rotary Club of Bowmanville member Randy Henry introduced Donna and Jill.
Donna McFarlane worked at OPG , Durham College and UOIT and has been a strong community supporter of the Grandview Children's Centre, and now, is the Senior Advisor at the Durham Region Hospice - Comfort, Care, Compassion: bringing residential hospice care to Durham Region.
Jill Richardson is a Director on the Board at Durham Region Hospice. She MCs a retired school principal from Toronto who moved to Newcastle . Her husband died 6 years ago and lived with cancer for 8 years. The first few months were okay, then the care was just impossible for her. At first, she received 4 hours of care for her husband daily, then 4 more hours, but the other 16 hours were impossible. The only alternative is Durham Region is in the hospitals for the 8 to 10 days but a hospital is not a place for someone to go and die. There was no dignity. Her husband was shifted from room to room, with other patients in the room, who were sick. Her husband could not eat , nor sleep in the last few days. Jill's grief soon became anger and said that there just has to be a hospice. She met Councilor Willie Woo and 4.5 years later, they formed the Durham Region Hospice and stared fundraising. There will be 3 hospices set up in Durham Region: a ten bed residence in Whitby, a 5 bed residence in Clarington and a 5 bed residence in Port Perry. They were able to get the land.
The facilities in Whitby and Clarington will be built with expansion in mind to meet the additional need.
Donna added that there is no hospice in Durham Region. There is a need for 33 beds by 2019. The average lenth of a patient stay in about 3 weeks. Only 5% of the patients need hospital care while 95% do not . The cost per day in a hospital is about $850 per patient. In a hospice, the cost is about $439. The Province does pay for the services in both facilities. Thehospices will be a home like setting with the family and the focus will be on living, not dying. Everyone knows that there is no curing... it is caring.
A residential hospice is a facility that offers meaningful end-of-life care – at no cost to residents or their family members – in a tranquil home-like setting that offers an alternative to dying in the hospital or at home. With a focus on living – not dying – residential hospice care empowers individuals to choose how they navigate their final journey while helping their families cope with and prepare for their last stages of life. An interdisciplinary team of health-care professionals and friendly volunteers provide assistance with pain and symptom management and offer comfort measures in a calm and nurturing environment, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Residential hospice is about caring not curing with a focus on offering free and meaningful care to individuals with a palliative diagnosis. As opposed to a hospital, where care is primarily administered by a medical team – including a primary physician – in a clinical setting, residents are cared for by an interdisciplinary team of health-care professionals (e.g. nurses, personal support workers and social workers) and dedicated volunteers who provide assistance with pain and symptom management and offer comfort measures in a calm, nurturing and home-like environment.
Residents have access to a private room, unrestricted visiting hours and free parking, which are not always available in a hospital setting and have the opportunity to truly choose how they live their final days. For example, having their pet stay with them, the opportunity to eat meals based on their personal choices and schedule, being able to bathe and shower whenever they want, the opportunity to spend time outdoors, etc. In addition, residential hospice care offers a wide range of non-medical service and program options including emotional and spiritual support for residents and their family members, arts and music programming and holistic healing practices.
Durham Region Hospice has partnered with the VON Durham. The capital campaign is $15 million for the Whitby and Clarington facilities. It will be a hospice for ALL residents of Durham Region. Patients will have choices , depending on their location. Cost will be approximately $10 million for Whitby and $5 million for Clarington. Land has been donated for both facilities. $1.5 million has been raised so far. Part of the $15 million requirement will be to fund for the servcies for the first two years. It is now the time to go out to all service groups and organizations in Durham Region and raise funds. They will be sending a formal “ask” to our Rotary Club in the near future.
The hospices day to day operations are funded by the Ministry of Health and will be regulated by the Minstry. Staff will include palliative doctors, RN's PSW's and counselling for the family. The family can stay at the hospice.
Here are some items from their website: https://durhamregionhospice.ca/
Comfort, Care, Compassion
To better serve individuals in our community who are facing a palliative diagnosis, in February 2018, Durham Region Hospice, a partnership between Durham Hospice and VON Durham Community Corporation, launched Comfort, Care, Compassion, a $15-million capital campaign to support the construction of two new residential hospices in Durham Region and bring this much needed resource to our community.
Hospice care focuses on living – not dying. Individuals are empowered to choose how they navigate their final journeys, and their families receive support in preparing for their loved one’s last stages of life. A five-bed site in Clarington and 10-bed site in Whitby will provide free and meaningful care in a supportive, flexible and home-like environment. Residents will be cared for by an interdisciplinary team of health-care professionals and volunteers who will assist the medical team with comfort measures and pain and symptom management.
Once constructed, these new state-of-the-art facilities will offer private rooms, free parking, unrestricted visiting hours and the ability to live freely, including flexible meals based on each resident’s choice, continuing to live with pets, bathing/showering at leisure, going outside when desired and access to a wide range of non-medical service and program options including spiritual and emotional supports, arts and music and holistic healing practices.
Hospice is about caring, not curing, and the time to care is now. Donate today.
The Comfort, Care, Compassion campaign is running in tandem with the Building for Compassionate Care campaign that launched in October 2017 in support of the planned Oak Ridges Hospice in Port Perry.
Here is an excellent background article from The Oshawa Express: https://durhamregionhospice.ca/campaign-seeks-to-bring-hospice-care-to-durham/
Donna and Jill and Randy were thanked by Kim Boatman.
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