Hospice Palliative Care Week

Wednesday, 7 May 2014 at 17:21

VON Sakura House, (shown here) is a 10-bed residential hospice house available for people (and their family) with a life expectancy of less than 3 months.

This year's Hike for Hospice event beat last year's total raised.

WOODSTOCK -- Busting the Myths about Hospice Palliative Care is the focus of an awareness week this week.

May 4th-through-10th marks "Hospice Palliative Care Week" and Nancy Clark, Coordinator of Hospice and Volunteers at VON Sakura House says the one of the biggest myths is that palliative means only for "end of life" care.

"We provide care to people when they're not just in their final days, but in the final months of their life as well, and even at the point of diagnosis. We support families in terms of the care givers, we ensure that pain and symptoms are controlled for the person who is dying."

One common misconception is that Hospice service is only for people who are dying.

Clark, says an often forgotten aspect of Hospice service is the all important "Caring Circle" group support for those who have just lost a person close to them.

"Any person of family who is bereaved or has lost someone, VON Sakura House is always there to support them, whether they lose a loved one at our Hospice or not."

Clark says this year's Hike for Hospice event proved why it's a vital fundraiser for their operation.

"We had over 500 hikers who came out to support us this past weekend. The total for so far that we've had come through was over 100-thousand dollars this year, surpassing last year's total of just under 95-thousand dollars."

The actual total raised as of Tuesday at 4pm was $100,281 for VON Sakura House.

Clark says the Hospice is always looking for volunteers throughout the year and in every type of capacity, saying they're looking to not only to support, but also expand the services they can offer.

Volunteers come from all walks of life, age, ethnicity, faith, gender, and professional backgrounds and unselfishly give of their time and offer a kind face and a helpful hand to those coping with illness and their families.

Training for volunteers is provided and will be running this fall starting on September 14th, 2014.

For more information, you can contact Nancy Clark, Coordinator of Hospice and Volunteers at (519) 537-8515 or email: nancy.clark@von.ca