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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-12-21, Page 5Wednesday, December 21, 2016 • Huron Expositor 5 Jessica's House wins $100,000, releases designs for 3 -bed hospice Darryl Coote Postmedia Jessica's House won $100,000 from the Aviva Community Fund Dec. 6, beating out hundreds of other charitable commu- nity initiatives in Canada. "I don't know if there are words that could ade- quately express how we felt about it," said Executive Director of the South Huron Hospital Foundation Kimberly Payne over the phone Dec. 16. "... Over 9,000 people in our area and around the world voted for us, voted us first place so it's very exciting. Very, very exciting." For about a year the South Huron Hospital Foundation's hospice initi- ative has been raising money and community support to break ground on a new three -bed hospice in Exeter. She says this victory shows the community sup- port of a project that has struggled to get recognition from the South West LHIN. The LHIN is currently in the process of deciding the location of 10 beds within Huron and Perth counties, with Clinton and Stratford being the two locations rec- ommended for the beds. Following the announce- ment by Aviva that Jessica's House had won the money, the LHIN sent out a state- ment saying "no decisions on bed locations have been made" and that it "appreci- ates the hard work and effort which community members have invested to provide advice about the location and number of beds across Huron -Perth." In another media release, the LHIN reaffirmed its stance that it will not make a decision on the beds at the very earliest in January 2017. Payne says the win from Aviva should make the LHIN more aware of the community support for its project. "It should raise their awareness level that the community strongly believes that this is some- thing they want in the com- munity. And it's a commu- nity position they're ready to go. And AVIVA feels the same way otherwise they wouldn't have chosen us out of all those projects in Canada to do this work," she said. She continued that she has spoken with the LHIN board and a member there has told her Jessica's House's position will be heard, whether through that board member or by the hospice initiative itself. She said it was "extremely frustrating" before that as they weren't involved in the decision process. But now they feel "a little more confident" they will be heard. Jessica's house, she said, wants the LHIN to be a creative leader and try to find solutions to this problem. "Sometimes you just have to be a leader," she said. "And this is a time for the South West LHIN to step up and be a leader and be creative and say you know what, maybe the right solution is the right num- ber of beds for the commu- nity instead of of starting out with a deficit with 10 beds when you know you need 13 and you know we're going to need 15 or 16 in another five to 10 years. Don't divide communities. Lift up the work this com- munity is doing and we'll lift up the other communi- ties when their time is here. We need both." The original recommen- dation for the two counties was a total 13 beds, but that was then whittled down to the present 10. Those selected to house the hos- pice beds will receive $105,000 per a year, which equals about 40 per cent of the cost. The remaining 60 per cent will have to come from the community. Jessica's House doesn't need the LHIN's support to build, she said, and they intended break ground in March 2017. The designs for the two- storey three -bed hospice were released to the pub- lic Wednesday, Dec. 14. Payne says they have taken the eventual need for more beds into consid- eration when they asked for the drawings. The plans included for future expansion of a fur- ther three beds. "The other really good thing about this model is at some point the LHIN decides we get these beds and down the road A computer rendering of the outside of Jessica's House, a three -bed hospice that is expected to break ground in March 2017. South Huron Hospital Foundation The floor plan for the hospice shows three large bedrooms with private porches. decided, 'oh gosh we need three more,' they can mir- ror that build. They just put a breezeway in between the two buildings and join them and build the mirror image on the other side. And we have enough land to do that comfortably," Payne said. The hospice is to have three large rooms, each with their own private porches allowing for patients to be wheeled outside on their beds. "You can go outside, you can be rolled out in your bed at night, in the morning, any time of day you can be rolled out to be outside because we know that's an important part of the process," she said. The idea behind the design was to make it a home -like experience, she said. The rooms are large with a pull-out sofa so family can stay over. There will also be a playroom for children and a kitchen. "we imagined a place where families can come and have space. So the bedrooms are very big and the space where families can be together is quite large," she said. E 0 0 0 a 0 0 CtS C/) HAVE AN OPINION? The Huron Expositor welcomes letters to the editor. They must be signed and accompanied by a phone number for information clarification. It is important to note, letters will not be printed without the author's name attached. All letters are subject to editing due to possible space restriction. Letters can be dropped off at the office, mailed or emailed: The Huron Expositor 8 Main St. P.O. Box 69 Seaforth, ON NOK 1WO Shaun.Gregory@sunmedia.ca www.seaforthhu ro nexpositor. co m