A $2-million expansion and total renovation of the Journey Home Hospice in downtown Toronto will enable St. Elizabeth Health Care to care for dying homeless men in new and better ways, and care for more of them.
Expanding from four to 10 beds, this hospice helps some of the most vulnerable Canadians through their last days or weeks. But Journey Home is more than just a last chance for a dignified death. It鱿鱼视频app also a teaching and research facility.
鈥淲e learn every day here,鈥� said Journey Home medical director Dr. Sheri Bergeron. 鈥淥ur patients teach us things. The staff teach us things. There鱿鱼视频app opportunity to learn more and then share that information.鈥�
The vulnerability of the population can鈥檛 be overstated. 鱿鱼视频app 75 per cent of people on the street have at least one serious health condition. They are five times more likely to have heart disease, four times more likely to have cancer than the general population.
The expansion of Journey Home is first of all an opportunity to care for more people. But it鱿鱼视频app also a chance to learn more about how to best care for them. The patient population has higher levels of mental illness, layered on top of physical diseases that brought them into the hospice. Since April 2018, when it opened in a largely improvised space carved out of a couple of apartments in a 10-storey apartment building, Journey Home has developed specialized policies and procedures to manage complex cases, ease patient symptoms and address their patients鈥� circumstances from every angle 鈥� physical, mental and spiritual.
鈥淭his is just as important from a science standpoint, an understanding standpoint,鈥� Bergeron said. 鈥淓verybody is approaching end-of-life at some point. How we can care for those people is a different philosophy of care and we should look at it.鈥�
Bergeron, who teaches palliative medicine at Western University鱿鱼视频app Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, Ont., brings residents and medical students into Journey Home to see the full scope of palliative medicine in a hospice setting.
鈥淚 always try to make sure they see that there鱿鱼视频app a lot of medicine in what we do, but there鱿鱼视频app also a lot of art in what we do,鈥� she said.
If Journey Home serves to train more doctors and nurses and grow the hospice movement in Ontario, that鱿鱼视频app exactly what the Iacobelli family was hoping for with its $1-million donation to the project, Henry Iacobelli told The Catholic Register.
鈥淭hat hospice actually is not only just a hospice where people are accepted and they come in for their last little bit of time here on Earth,鈥� said Iacobelli, whose family produces Unico and Primo brand foods in Kingsville, Ont. 鈥淭hey actually are a training facility for any other community that wants to get something like that going in their town.鈥�
The Iacobelli donation was half of the $2-million price tag to transform the old hospice into a modern medical facility that has the look and feel of home with original artwork scattered through the rooms, a fireplace in the living room and a welcoming kitchen generously stocked with cookies and treats. All of that money came from charitable gifts because the province doesn鈥檛 fund any of the up-front capital costs of building a hospice.
鈥淚t鱿鱼视频app a good place to put some money. It鱿鱼视频app worthwhile,鈥� said Iacobelli. 鈥淲hy doesn鈥檛 the government do it? I don鈥檛 know.鈥�
鈥淭his is a labour of love, there鱿鱼视频app no doubt about that,鈥� said St. Elizabeth Health Foundation director Nancy Lefebre. 鈥淭his is really looking at the whole raison d鈥檈tre of our social enterprise, to actually make a difference and make an impact and to care for those populations that are more vulnerable.鈥�
Lefebre senses a shift in public attitudes about hospice and palliative care 鈥� a shift that may change funding priorities for governments.
鈥淪ociety doesn鈥檛 really want to talk about death and dying. They don鈥檛 really want to think about it,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou have the homeless and the vulnerably housed population on top of that 鈥� also an issue that society has a hard time wrapping their arms around.鈥�
But if we ever do think about how well we as a society care for the dying, then how well we care for the most rejected, vulnerable and isolated people is the right measuring stick, according to Lefebre.
鈥淲e will see a change over the next while,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here will be more people like us who are going to be pushing and informing and trying to change things around.鈥�
All hospices, but especially Journey Home, can act as hubs for a full range of palliative care offered in the community. In the spectrum of palliative care it sits between home care and the kind of complex palliative care offered in hospitals. In Lefebre鱿鱼视频app view, each hospice is a keystone in building a complete palliative care system.
鈥淲e have this saying 鈥� we鈥檙e going where they鈥檙e going,鈥� she said. It鱿鱼视频app a do-unto-others situation 鈥� we should provide for them the dignity in dying we wish for ourselves.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited for the patients to see it,鈥� said Bergeron as the just completed space was put on display Dec. 15. 鈥淥ur staff is super-excited and engaged to have more patients that we can help and support here.鈥�