Valley Hospice Foundation's plans have been delayed for 1 year

The Valley Hospice Foundation hopes it can help make a difficult time for families a little easier, but the project to build a residential hospice facility has been delayed for about a year.

In last year's annual report, foundation chair Diana Patterson wrote that 97 per cent of the foundation's financial goals had been achieved.

"The reality of our Hospice Centre is imminent," she wrote.

That was June 11, 2014.

"We were very, very close. Very close indeed. We had enough money to start building," Patterson told CBC News.

The reason for the delay — which Patterson calls a "good delay" — is the Liberal government's move this spring to merge nine district health authorities into one provincial health authority.

The hospice foundation had an agreement that Annapolis Valley Health would operate the hospice.

"I believe the whole province has to have one idea, one direction for all hospices within the province, so it's not scattered in our various districts," said Patterson.

Valley hospital does not have a palliative care facility

Brenda Wallace-Allen, a hospice board member, says while the province is trying to create hospice care equity across the province, the valley area is at a disadvantage.

"We don't even have a palliative care facility in our regional hospital... There's no equity here," she said.

The province is working on a framework for palliative care whether it's at home, a hospital or a hospice facility. In May 2014, Health Minister Leo Glavine announced $1 million in funding to develop a palliative care strategy.

Tricia Cochrane is the vice-president of integrated health services for the Nova Scotia Health Authority. She says the province wants to develop the right foundation for what hospice care should be like in Nova Scotia.

"Having the Nova Scotia Health Authority, one organization as opposed to nine, makes it a bit easier for the department and the new health authority to work together to develop that foundation," said Cochrane.

Hospice would let families be together

The Valley Regional Hospital does not have a palliative care unit. It uses a scattered-bed approach for palliative care patients.

The Valley Hospice would have eight to 10 beds in private rooms with space for family members — even pets — to spend the night. The plan is to build the hospice close to the Valley Regional Hospital.

"For example, one of the things you provide in a hospice room is there usually has to be the availability of double beds," said board vice-chair Don Wells. "It's a funny thing to mention, but for people who are dying, they want their partners there and they want to spend that time together."

Wallace-Allen's mother died two years ago at home surrounded by family. She says it was only possible with the support of family, the Valley Regional's palliative care team, community and neighbours. Even then, she said the toll of taking this on would have eventually grown to be too much.

"If it continued for another six months or another eight months, I don't know if the family could have sustained that. If we might have burned out or if we might have needed respite, in which case the hospice would have been the perfect solution for that," said Wallace-Allen.

She thinks a hospice is needed, especially for people who do not have family or friend support so they can die at home.

Hospices are needed for a variety of reasons

Wallace-Allen adds that not everyone goes to a hospice to die. Sometimes, people go there for pain management or to get their symptoms under control.

Although the Annapolis Valley and rural Nova Scotia has a significant number of older people, Wallace-Allen says she was surprised that a number of younger women who were dying wanted to die in a hospice.

"They didn't want their family home to be the place that they died. They wanted their children to remember the family home as a place where mom lived," she said.

Patterson says an agreement should be in place with the health authority by the end of the summer that will allow the foundation to issue tenders for builders and designers.

The foundation reached its $4 million fundraising goal this spring, but Patterson says they will continue to fundraise.