That’s why the Etobicoke-based hospice’s 12th annual Hike for Hospice next month will benefit its community care programs, which offer compassionate care to individuals living with the challenges of a life-limiting illness or a loss.
“The stigma that goes with hospice palliative care is associated with death and dying,” Melody Courtney, Dorothy Ley’s events and funds development co-ordinator said in a recent interview. “That’s not it at all. It’s about people living and making every moment count. Yes, the end result in many cases is people will die. But (our residential palliative care centre) is not a scary place.”
Dorothy Ley Hospice is the only hospice in Toronto to offer both community and residential palliative care support to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of people with life-limiting illness.
Hike for Hospice takes place on Sunday, May 4 at Dorothy Ley’s residential hospice at 220 Sherway Dr. Registration starts at 11 a.m.
Every participant who raises $100 or more in donations will receive a gift and a chance to win an iPad mini.
Participants are family members who hike to honour late loved ones or volunteers who have family or friends touched by the hospice. Others are people in the neighbourhood “who understand what we do is valued and necessary,” Courtney said.
Each year, the hike grows. This year is on-target to become the hike’s biggest year yet, thanks in part to marketing efforts in residential neighbourhoods along the five-kilometre hike.
Volunteers are busy folding 400 white ribbons with Dorothy Ley’s signature black-and-green name on them. Hikers will tie the ribbons around the trees and bannisters of residents whose homes they pass.
Last year, the hospice provided support to more than 3,000 people. All services are offered at no charge due to donors’ generosity.
“With Canada’s aging population, the Hospice needs your help to meet the growing demand for care and support,” reads Dorothy Ley’s 2014 Hike brochure.
Across Ontario, there are 1.9 million seniors 65 or older. In the next 20 years, Ontario’s seniors’ population is expected to double.
Dorothy Ley’s community care programs include:
- care co-ordination;
- in-home support to relieve caregivers and to listen, comfort and advocate for people’s needs;
- day program held Wednesdays at Dorothy Ley’s residential hospice offering opportunity to share experiences, play games, do expressive arts therapy, music therapy, general arts and crafts and complementary therapies, such as Therapeutic Touch, tai Chi or seated exercises and guided visualization;
- integrative wellness services including Therapeutic Touch, Tai Chi, Acupuncture, relaxation/guided imagery meditation and expressive arts therapy in-home, in the residential care program, at the day program and on-site community partner agencies;
- spiritual care co-ordinator, and
- bereavement care and support for caregivers, families and friends following a death or for those who anticipate a loss.
“Through our community care program, co-ordinators go out into the community. They support individual right from the time of their diagnosis,” Courtney said. “The residential program is for people who come in and stay in hospice in the last three months, or less, of their lives. We’re with people and offer services from the time of their diagnosis. Many people don’t necessarily know that.”
Dorothy Ley’s residential program has 10 care-suites in a purpose-built palliative care centre for adults 16 and older with a prognosis of less than three months to live. It offers person-centred, end-of-life care that focuses on quality of life through pain and symptom management and support. Services are extended not just to the individual, but to family members and supporters.
In 2011-12, the average length of a person’s stay in Dorothy Ley Hospice Palliative Care Centre was 24.8 days.
“We want to demystify the end-of-life journey, the stigma,” said Rami Shami, Dorothy Ley’s volunteer services co-ordinator. “We look at the journey in its total. There is a big sense of choice and autonomy to the individual.”
Dorothy Ley’s catchment area includes the geographic boundaries of the Mississauga-Halton Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), the Central West LHIN (northern Peel Region, northwest Toronto, southwest York Region, including Rexdale), the central LHIN (north Toronto, most of York Region and southern Simcoe County) and the Toronto LHIN.
To register for the Hike for Hospice, visit www.dlhospice.org or call Courtney at 416-626-0116 ext. 236.
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