Hospice Wellington says it agrees with the stance of the Health Quality Ontario Report released Dec. 15 that states now is the time to expand access to hospice palliative care.
The aging population is inevitably and rapidly escalating the number of people needing hospice palliative care.
To address this growing need, health care investments should focus on community care. With the right supports residents can live at home. This is also more cost effective.
Quality hospice palliative care addresses the many issues associated with dying: physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual and practical.
Across the province, access to hospice palliative care can improve through increased home support, with coordinated teams addressing the clinical needs of the client and the non-clinical requirements of the family.
Community care is much more cost effective and it is where people would rather be when possible. The best care is provided when there are teams in communities who can help people receive the support they need at home, which might be quicker access to pain management or another type of home care support and helps people move to a hospice residence as needed.
That timing, while different for everyone, is on average at Hospice Wellington, the last 10 days of life.
Care in a hospice residence allows families to become families again. The pain is eased for the patient, the stress of the family is relieved, and people can spend those last days celebrating a life, and saying their good-byes.
Hospice Wellington has cared for more than 1,090 clients in its 10-bed residence since opening in June 2010, saving approximately $5 million in hospital costs through saved bed days in acute care.
In addition 541 dying clients and their families were cared for in their own home and over 340 bereaved families are supported each year through our extensive grief and bereavement supports.
They are hopeful that the province will respond positively to the report and hospice palliative care will be more accessible in a greater number of communities.
At the local level, Hospice Wellington receives funding from the province and its agencies for about 55 per cent of its $2.1 million annual operating budget.
They have to raise the other 45 per cent in the community every year.
Hospice Wellington is now looking to the province to improve its funding level so that more of the money raised locally each year can be directed to providing services such as home support, bereavement support and programs specifically for children who have experienced loss.
Studies and have demonstrated that coordinated community care keeps people where they would rather be and avoids unnecessary expensive trips to the hospital. Hospice Wellington is part of the local community care team that includes the Community Care Access Centre, hospice palliative care outreach team and local family physicians.
An important conversation for everyone involves planning ahead for death. Only three per cent of people will die suddenly, the rest will benefit from hospice palliative care – its compassion and support to help manage pain and symptoms, family stress, along with other social, practical and spiritual aspects of dying.
For more information about Hospice Wellington visit www.hospicewellington.org or call 519-836-3921 and speak with executive director Rosslyn Bentley.
