Maison McCulloch Hospice
Grantee
Resilient Communities Fund
Award amount
$93,100
Award timeline
2021-2022 (12 months)
Age group
General population (all age groups)
Catchment
Algoma, Cochrane, Manitoulin & Sudbury
Community size
Urban Centres and Metropolitan Suburbs (100,000+)
Population served
All ages in the Greater Sudbury Area
Opportunity
The impacts of COVID-19 made it difficult for individuals needing grief support services to access the help they needed. Increased feelings of isolation also exacerbated their grief. The hospice needed to find a way to serve their patients and families while meeting health and safety requirements that limited the number of visitors patients could receive.
Approach
By creating an online approach to grief support services, both in group and one-on-one settings, the hospice has increased access to its services and reached a broader audience.
Selected Project Outcome
Procure equipment or renovate spaces to meet the needs of the organization to be able to safely deliver its programs and services, and/or to adapt to new ways of working.
Community impact
- extra hours of support were offered to Hospice residents to reduce isolation when COVID-19 mandates restricted visitors.
- grief support services are now offered virtually to continue to meet community need
- one-on-one grief counselling and support grew by 300%
“This grant was the catalyst for allowing us to continue offering quality supportive care and grief services to our residents and their loved ones.”
Maison McCulloch Hospice is a residence for those in need of palliative, end-of-life, care. Through the support of doctors, nursing staff, volunteers and family members, residents are cared for in a home-like environment. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the hospice, like many other care settings, was faced with restrictive guidelines that would limit the number of volunteers and family members who could support residents during their final days.
As a result, both residents and family members were experiencing isolation and more intense feelings of grief.
The hospice staff developed an innovative plan to ensure they met the needs of their residents and grieving family members.
With the help of a Resilient Communities Fund grant in 2021, they created on-line and in-person grief counselling groups to increase access to services and meet the needs of the residents in care and their loved ones. The grant helped them purchase laptops and personal protective equipment and rent a new space to deliver socially distanced counselling. Staff were also provided with advanced certification training to facilitate virtual support. Additional hours for staff enabled them to be more present for the residents and helped them fill in the gaps caused by reduced volunteers and family visits.
As a result, the hospice has not only provided a consistent service during the pandemic, but it has also increased its long-term offerings to continuously provide online services to reach a broader audience. Their one-on-one grief services have increased by 300 per cent, and their virtual offerings now include a full suite of services including supportive care, grief discussion groups, individual grief coaching, as well as workshops and education for caretakers. Through this funding, Maison McCulloch Hospice navigated the pandemic and implemented long-term solutions to continue to serve their patients and their loved ones.
