After a couple of years of hard work in moving toward and achieving society status, the Palliative Care Society of the Bow Valley has cleared a first major hurdle.
After many volunteers put many hours of work into the creation of PCSBV and, with non-profit status in place, the group will elect a permanent board which will work toward creation of both a palliative care house and the vision of a compassionate and collaborative community that ensures the availability of high quality palliative and end-of-life care.
“It’s been quite the process,” said Lynn Cooper, interim board chair of PCSBV. “It took two and a half years to get non-profit society status, and there were a lot of details to look after, but without it, we don’t exist.
“But the first stage is now done and we’re moving ahead. We’re doing this from the community up; that’s how we started.”
With the first major step now taken, PCSBV members will hold a special meeting on Sept. 12, from 7-9 p.m. in room 212 at Elevation Place in Canmore to elect a permanent board.
Once a board is in place, the group will then look at the much longer view of building a 12-bedroom palliative care house with respite beds which would be located as near as possible to Canmore General Hospital. With an estimated price tag of $6 million to $8 million for a palliative care house, plenty of fundraising is in the offing.
If you’re not familiar with all that is entailed under the umbrella of palliative care, it’s not surprising, as palliative care is often associated with death.
It’s a subject people don’t like to talk about, but it’s a subject that must be talked about, said Cooper, a former nurse whose interest in palliative and full-life care was piqued when she had heart bypass surgery in 2013.
“It’s like Ian Bos said, ‘death is a hard sell, there’s not a great market for it.’ ”
Nova Scotian Bos passed through Canmore in October 2015 as part of his Ian’s Walk for End of Life Care and met with PCSBV as he promoted awareness and education. Bos was moved to action by his father Ted’s passing in New Glasgow at age 68 after a bout with cancer.
And, while palliative and end of life care typically concerns the elderly, those of a more advanced age are not the only ones who should give their long-term care some thought.
As Cooper pointed out, though, many young people, including climbers, skiers, etc. who could suffer major injury, should also have a thought for long-term planning in case the worst should happen.
Over the long haul, said Cooper and present secretary to the board Barbara Price, also a former cancer nurse with capital planning expertise, BCSBV wants to augment services now in place in the valley.
“We wants to strengthen and expand services,” said Price. “Most hospices start that way and all of us are very committed to helping the community thrive.
“Many people are born and raised here and they wonder, Why do I have to go to Calgary to die? There has been a worldwide paradigm shift and medicine has now learned that there are many people with a life limiting illness, not just near death, and the focus now is on well being to the end of life.
“That’s why we need a bricks and mortar house, so everyone has a place to stay in the community.
“Medicine is catching up to the idea of hospice and palliative care and Alberta is a leader in palliative care. We feel extremely supported in the Calgary zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS).”
Price points to a provincial framework for palliative and end of life care developed by AHS in 2014, and a current Advanced Care Planning Tracking Record used to document decisions, next steps and outcomes of discussions related to long-term and end of life care where patients’ input is critical.
“It’s shown that people who accept palliative care early live longer,” said Price. “We want people to live longer and live well – that’s why our dream is to build a hub, a house, with care beds and day programs like art, massage and bereavement counseling. It would be a place where a partner could be in and a spouse could go for the programs.
“It would provide a fuller spectrum of care than exists today, where there would be a mix of services at a hospice, and through Canmore and Foothills hospitals.”
It’s no secret that Canada’s population is aging, as numerous studies and surveys have demonstrated, said Cooper, so steps must be taken to increase services and programs available.
Fortunately for the PCSBV group, and Cooper describes it as being a “serendipitous” situation, a great deal of input from AHS, Canmore Hospital, Banff Canmore Community Foundation and people such as Nancy Lewis of FCSS in Banff, former CRPS director Brian Callaghan, retired pathologist Peter Petrik, the dean of the Mount Royal College nursing program, and Blair Dunbar and Marilyn Gilker, have offered support and expertise.
The idea is that a palliative care house would serve valley residents from Cochrane to Lake Louise, including Stoney Nakoda, and Calgarians as part of the AHS zone.
“People have chronic diseases, they keep aging, and we think this is a natural for the valley,” said Cooper.
The original PCSBV board consisted of Cooper, Dr. Martin Tweeddale, Doug Cooper, Joan McGregor and Bob Alexander, while the present board is made up of Cooper, Price, Tweeddale, McGregor, Doug Fraser and Norm Dreger.
The projected future board will feature six to 10 positions, which will be filled at the election.
“We’re talking about a dream here,” said Price. “We’ve had some really great people working on this.”
“It’s unfolding beautifully,” said Cooper. “Dr. Catharine Hinds of the Canmore Cancer Centre is on board with it and it’s all started from the bottom up. We have good people and we’ll need many volunteers.”
Once a board is elected, next steps will include a facility plan and a plan for the scope of services within a public community partnership, and setting up committees for specific tasks like fundraiser and attracting volunteers.
Ideally, the palliative care house would be a freestanding, home-like environment close to the hospital where services like food preparation and laundry could be shared, with cancer beds near at hand.
Envisioned is a two-storey structure of about 25,000 square feet on one or two acres of land (hopefully provided at minimal cost), funded 75 per cent by the community and 25 per cent by AHS.
Operational costs, as estimated by Price, would be in the neighbourhood of $3 million per year, about half the cost of an acute care bed.
“It would be primary care in a rural setting,” said Price, “with 12 beds for anyone over 18.”
“I have complete faith in the community,” said Cooper, whose role would be that of education.
At some point in the future, a café style event will be held to gather public input on the project and for board members to answer questions from the community.
In planning for the future, said Price, the group has toured several palliative care centres.
“People in palliative care are so wonderful,” she said. “Their attitude is basically, if they have to work with care in a shoebox, they’ll make it work.”
For more information, visit www.palliativecarebowvalley.com.
