Hospice continues its journey

The Hospice team is continuing to provide services for people in Windsor and Essex County, encouraging members of the community to volunteer.

Staff at Hospice of Windsor and Essex County empowers people suffering from life-altering diagnoses and their caregivers to achieve their desired quality of life.

The Hospice services include physical, social, emotional and spiritual support to patients and their caregivers. Their goal is to relieve the stress and pain people endure during an illness.

Executive director Carol Derbyshire said patients are at different stages of illness when they come to Hospice. Patients may suffer from different diagnosis such as cancers, COPD or diabetes.

“The most important thing is that they learn to live with their diagnosis,” she said.

All services at Hospice are free of charge. After a patient dies, the services are extended to their families for as long as they need. This might include meeting with a social worker for bereavement or attending wellness programs to get them back into a personal routine.

“The Hospice Residential Home is a place of great joy. Loved ones get to enjoy being loved ones again when the role of being the caregiver is alleviated,” said Derbyshire. “It’s wonderful to see people have the chance to be husband and wife again instead of patient and caregiver.”

Hospice currently has over 800 volunteers. Any volunteer within the organization who works directly with the patients must complete a 40-hour training course. During this time they learn how to care for palliative patients and how to be there as a source of support for the family.

“Our Hospice volunteers are a virtual army on the ground,” said Derbyshire. “Our volunteers are our Hospice angels and it makes me proud in my role to hear in the community all the good work they have done.”

Bonnie Lelievre has been a Hospice volunteer since 2010. She is involved with administrative tasks and fundraising special events with the community engagement and advancement department.

“Being a Hospice volunteer has taught me to live each day to the fullest,” said Lelievre. “It has also helped me realize that Windsor is such a generous community.”

Laura Lemmon, communications and events specialist, said people may find it hard to volunteer because they can get too emotional, but the volunteering program is broken down to patient care, administrative and support. So people can volunteer in other sections not including dealing directly with patients.

The Hospice has a special place for children so they can come in for either group therapy sessions or group meetings with their parents and siblings. They can also meet one on one with a social worker and do play therapy at the chalkboard.

The first child Hospice cared for in the residential home was a boy named Colby. After he died, his parents donated all of the Legos he built with over the years. Currently, the place has a room called the Lego room which is dedicated to and named after Colby.

“Now we have our own Lego club that meets once a month,” said Lemmon. “They build different Lego figurines and either choose to keep them on display or take them home with them.”

The room is called Colby’s corner and other children are completing what he started. More information about volunteering can be found at www.thehospice.ca.