Dear editor,
I’d like to point out a bit of an error in the recent article on funding for hospice care.
It’s not simply the Comox Valley Hospice Society asking where funding is for hospice care here. It’s those of us who live and die here and our families!
I only have to walk down the street to see how we have increasingly become a retirement community with more and more of us who will need care, as we are all going to die someday.
Having cared for my dying husband at home seven years ago, I know I couldn’t have made it without the support of family, friends and hospice volunteers.
Afterwards it was the hospice that helped me work though my loss. I saw first-hand how hard the staff and the volunteers work.
The job of being hospice staff or a volunteer is tough at the best of times. They are always dealing with grief-stricken families and friends and they have the added dimension of raising funds to keep their services going.
Now I read about the millions of dollars pouring in to these services in the Lower Mainland where they already have hospices and much more available care.
I keep hearing at the VIHA meetings how there is a plan for these services for those of us in the Comox Valley. Then there’s another revised plan and the years go by.
It seems like we are way past the time to keep planning. I know I for one don’t want to die in a ward in the hospital, nor do I want to burden my family to be my day-and-night caregiver when I reach that point.
Being the caregiver in the final days in a imminent home death does not allow you to spend quality time with your loved one. There is too much to do to keep them comfortable.
And then it is over. Family and friends return to their lives and you need help handling your grief.
We need Hospice! Whether it’s the Ministry of Health or our health authority, they need to start funding care here in our community! Nothing will happen until they stop talking and start doing.
Tricia Marr,
Comox Valley