Changing how to go about death at Hospice Niagara
Staff find ways to keep families safely apart, yet still together during pandemic
It’s taken only a few weeks for COVID-19 to change nearly everything about the way people go about their lives.
And how they go about their deaths. At Hospice Niagara, which provides palliative care, staff have had to find new ways to bring people together to share their final moments.
Needing to be close — but kept distant over restrictions on visiting — the friends and families are drawn to the windows at the St. Catharines centre.
They can share pictures, smiles. Moments.
But for the half-inch of glass, they’re there.
“The one benefit we’ve got is that we’re on ground level, so they can come and see their loved one through the window,” said registered nurse Ruth Ann Ciesla.
“We try to position the resident so that is possible.”
They’ve had whole families outside, some bringing little children, all standing apart but still together. “We had members from a workplace come and kind of position themselves all on the lawn, and hold up signs that said ‘We care for you, we love you,’ ” said Ciesla, adding there were 15 or 20 people outside looking in.
“We recognize that the need to be together as a family to support each other is great,” added supportive counsellor Shelley Wilson.
“It’s certainly different than what we’re accustomed to.”
Like other health-care centres, COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the way Hospice Niagara provides services.
Its community-based programs for people and families dealing with a terminal illness, like day hospice and bereavement support, have all gone online.
Fundraising efforts — they account for about 60 per cent of its budget — are shifting to the internet, too.
And, said executive director Carol Nagy, “we’ve lost our army of volunteers.”
She’s had to increase the staff complement to make up for that, and credits the hospice’s board of directors for stepping up, taking on jobs such as screening people as they arrive.
“We always work as a team, but I think it is drawing us even tighter together,” said Ciesla. “We just rely on each other so much.”
Provincial safety measures have also forced residents to make an uncomfortable decision, having to choose which visitor will be allowed into their room.
Wilson said that has presented “a great emotional challenge, but we’re putting things in place to take away some of that burden.”
Staff are arranging phone calls and video chats for family and friends. Emailed messages are printed and brought to the room. People have been understanding, she says.
Sometimes, visitors deliver photos to be passed on to the resident and, said Nagy, “If they agree, we’re able to tape them talking about those memories and sending messages out, and we send those taped messages out to the family.
“We’re trying absolutely everything, to be as creative as possible to keep up those connections,” she said.
“We know through this period of time … if we can give them as much support as we can now, that will help their grieving process. It’ll be difficult, but at least it will be a little easier for them going forward.”
In the first week of May, Hospice Niagara will launch its annual Five-Car Draw, the biggest fundraiser of the year.
It will be the first time it’s been done strictly online.
Until now, staff and volunteers have sold the tickets, and the draw has been held at during Rotary Ribfest at Montebello Park.
This year the Early Bird draw for $10,000 will happen June 22, and the winning tickets for the five cars will be picked Aug. 3.
Normally, that contest grosses about $500,000 for Hospice Niagara.
This year — without in-person ticket sales or a live draw, and so many people who usually buy tickets out of work — Nagy hopes for the best but isn’t sure what to expect.
She does appreciate “the wonderful people” who she said have been sewing gowns and masks and donating supplies and money to help during the pandemic.
Inside Hospice Niagara, life goes on.
“There is so much to be said about simply putting your hand on somebody else’s hand, just to make that physical connection that you care,” said Wilson. Gord.Howard@niagaradailies.com