Four Tides Hospice Society is requesting that City of Powell River donate city-owned property for the construction of a hospice facility.
At the May 6 committee of the whole meeting, society president Malerie Meeker appeared before councillors, outlining its activities and making the property request.
Meeker said hospice care is social, emotional and spiritual care for end-of-life, delivered by trained volunteers. She said when palliative care, which is medical, and hospice care come together, the end-of-life journey can be transformative for people who are passing and their loved ones. Hospice has been in Powell River for at least 30 years, she added.
“We provide one-to-one support for people at end-of-life wherever they are – in hospitals, long-term care, or in their homes,” said Meeker. “We also provide the same kinds of supports for their loved ones. We provide bereavement services and programs, one-to-one, or, we have bereavement groups.”
Meeker said the society receives no contractual government funding. The services are delivered free of charge to everyone in the qathet region who needs them.
“We do so through grants, fundraising and donations,” said Meeker. “We have a very generous community.”
Meeker said in 2024, there were 41 active volunteers, and another 10 have just been trained. There were 292 clients served via 1,224 visits. There were 98 group presentations that year and all the services were delivered with 3,684 volunteer hours.
Meeker said some people wonder why the society is going ahead with planning a hospice house in the current economic climate.
“First off, we have broad community support,” said Meeker. “In 2022, when we were coming back from COVID-19, we did a series of community engagement activities. We know the community supports this initiative.
“The second reason is that we desperately need it. People are dying in the hallways of our hospital. We can do better than that.”
Meeker said the hospice house will be a standalone facility that this community has been envisioning for quite some time.
“The vision for hospice house is four to eight beds,” said Meeker. “If it goes as big as eight, some of the beds will be used for pain management and for respite. We envision a home-like environment. Each room will be private, with extra accommodation for family.
“We have an idea about grounds. Every room will have doors that can open so beds can go out into a peaceful serenity garden. Spiritual cultural practices will be honoured.”
Meeker said the society has a signed agreement with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), which designates VCH as the funder of operations.
“They have committed to fully operating hospice house when it is built,” said Meeker. “The community takes responsibility for the capital campaign. We have so far raised $2 million without a big campaign. This is from generous people knowing the direction in which we are going. We have just hired a professional fundraiser.”
Meeker said the first item in the hospice house plan is to secure land.
“It’s our ask, and that’s why I’m here,” said Meeker. “Four Tides wants to ask the city to partner with us. We want you to become a full-fledged partner in this adventure and the way you could do that is by giving your planning department some marching orders to explore the possibility of locating hospice house on city-owned land.”
Meeker said the hospice society needs at least an acre, and accessibility is a consideration.
Mayor Ron Woznow asked, regarding the 160 city properties that could be utilized, could hospice house be on a piece of land that was also serving another need in the community, or is it important to have property for hospice house alone.
Meeker said VCH has provided a lot of latitude with location and model of operation. She said the biggest objective is to ensure it meets the criteria around serenity.
Woznow said he wanted to make a motion that the committee ask the acting chief administrative officer to have an initial discussion with the hospice society so there can be clarity on city-owned lands that may be available and meet the society’s requirements.
Councillor and committee chair Earl Almeida said the city’s procedure bylaw indicated that the committee can’t act on the delegation’s request until a future council meeting.
“We could forward this to a council agenda,” said Almeida, “and bring it forward for further discussion.”
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