The 100 Mile District Hospice Palliative Care Society has been approved for a $5,809 grant for its fundraising efforts for some new equipment.
This Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital Foundation Partnership Grant will provide 40 per cent of the net purchase cost of $14,523 for the much-needed equipment.
Society program director Gayle Dunsmuir says the financial support was requested from the Cariboo Chilcotin Regional Hospital District (CCRHD) board to boost numerous community donations gathered over the past year.
“We're really glad the CCRHD is going to top this up for us. We really needed to add one new RIK (pressure reduction) mattress and two new oxygen concentrators.... Because of the wear-and-tear, we need to know that the equipment that is going out [to homes] is top quality.”
Three sheepskin mattress pads are also on the shopping list, which she explains offer “amazing comfort” for palliative care patients.
Some other required equipment is related to the gel-filled RIK mattress, and a new ultra-compact portable PA system is also on the list. It is something Dunsmuir notes hospice has never had before.
That will be “very useful” for hospice at its educational and grief counselling sessions, she adds, as well as for large gatherings, such as its Memory Tree near Christmas.
“It will be great. Our hearing is not what it used to be, and we find people just try to kind of compensate – they are really not hearing clearly.”
Hospice has received many generous memorial donations from individual family members, Dunsmuir says, adding money is always earmarked for capital expenditures.
“With that generosity from the community, plus the CCRHD funding, we're able to make those purchases.”
CCRHD director Al Richmond says the money is well spent by making hospice patients comfortable, many of whom are able to spend their final days at home with the support of the society and this kind of equipment.
“We would pay for these things anyway if they were actually located in the hospital. This is just an opportunity to [recognize] more and more folks want to stay home, and to keep them as comfortable as possible.”
He adds financial support is also a good way to recognize and appreciate the importance of the hard work the local hospice volunteers do in, and for, the community.