Doug Terry Homes has donated $500,000 in supporting the development of a new hospice in Elgin County.
On Thursday, representatives from Hospice of Elgin and Doug Tarry Homes gathered in St. Thomas, Ont. to celebrate the “monumental gift.”
“We recognize that many families go through this difficult journey with limited support,” Doug Tarry wrote in a statement. “We see building a hospice as a responsibility to ensure that people and their families in our community will be cared for.”
In Sept. 2019, the province announced that the incoming facility would received $1.6 million in capitol funding to help cover construction, development, equipment as well as start-up costs to help with their ongoing fundraising to support the $11 million project.
The funding came from the Ontario Ministry of Health’s $33.6-million commitment to create an additional 193 hospice beds throughout the province.
But, according to officials with Hospice of Elgin, which is owned by St. Joseph’s Health Care Society— the same organization that owns St. Joseph’s Health Care London and St. Joseph’s Hospice London — Elgin is the only region in southwestern Ontario without a hospice.
“This is a critical missing gap in our community,” said Laura Sherwood, director of hospice partnerships for Hospice of Elgin. “Not only do we not have a hospice, but we also don’t have a palliative care unit in our hospital care. So, a lot of families are really struggling here in this community.
“We know that many families are also having to leave the community to die in other communities that are in the surrounding area and that quite frankly, here in Elgin County and St. Thomas, we got to do better,” she added.
The planned 10-bed, 16,000-square-foot hospice will be located at 2 South Edgeware Road, at the top of the hill leading into Waterworks Park. The incoming facility, with construction set to begin in March 2023, will provide around-the-clock end-of-life care along with a palliative care clinic, caregiver support, grief and bereavement programs, and more. All forms of care can be offered at home or in the community.
Sherwood said that planning has been moving along across the board and committee tables, saying that they can’t wait to start digging the shovels into the ground in the spring.
“We have found, in our other hospices is that one out of 10 beds is somebody under the age of 45,” she said. “We’re looking to anchor not only a holistic model of care, but we’re really wanting to support all cultures, ages, and faiths coming into hospice.
“This facility is going to support so many families, children, and just the impact is so significant across multiple different generations as well,” Sherwood added. “We’re so grateful for the Doug Tarry team’s leadership and support as we move forward.”
Carolyne Tarry, who sits on the building committee for the incoming hospice, got emotional when reflecting on the donation from her family and what this facility will bring to families in the local community.
“We’re honoured and really blessed as a family to do this because it’s really needed in the community, she said.
Tarry added that for her family to be able to help fulfill the community’s need for a hospice “fills her heart.”
“It actually gives me chills because it’s an amazing opportunity to do something like this,” said Jennifer Weatherston, vice-president of operations at Doug Tarry Homes. “Everybody, at some point in their life, has had a family member or a friend or a relative that’s gone through something that’s terminally ill or cancer related, and to be able to have a place within the community where they can go and have dignity and respect and other family nearby like this is fundamental.”
The Hospice of Elgin is set to be completed in March of 2024, allowing approximately 500 families to be cared for within the first year, and another 400 families to be cared for in their own homes through programs and services.
Bill Graham, a community leader on the board of directors for the Hospice of Elgin says that “this monumental gift represents an incredible commitment to the community and will help advance the work to build a hospice in Elgin County.”
For more information on the Hospice of Elgin, visit their website.
— With files from Global News’ Matthew Trevithick