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.
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