Prince George Hospice Palliative Care Society (PGHPCS) has been selected to participate in the UBC Nav-CARE Compassionate Dementia Inclusive Community Initiative.
“This comes out of a bigger project, said Hospice executive director Donna Flood. “One of our strategic goals is to look at how to create a wellness centre for people who are living with a life-ending disease … This initiative is strictly targeted at dementia. We're looking to the community to let us know what it is they need. And then we will look at developing something to support them, something sustainable.”
The initiative is designed to identify issues and areas of focus needed to help further support both for people living with the illness and their caregivers.
“The thing that we are hoping to do is find the greatest need right now,” said community programs team lead Laurie DeCroos. “This is in terms of supporting people living with dementia and their care partners and families that will then manifest into a program or a service.”
So far Hospice has identified a need for more social spaces and quality-of-life care for patients suffering from Alzheimer's and more respite for permanent caregivers.
DeCroos knows that the support for caregivers is one of the essential aspects of this initiative and better support for them translates to better support for patients
“One of the things that we find is that often the care partner gets forgotten about because there's so much of the focus is on the person living with the illness,” said DeCroos. “It's really important for both the person living with dementia and care partners to get through this journey with support for each of them … We want to make sure that they don't get forgotten about and they can tend to their needs.”
However, community support is essential for this program to achieve success and the PGHPCS is asking for the community to come forward with lived experiences to help identify gaps in care.
“We're going to be asking a wide variety of individuals in our community,” said DeCroos “Which will be people living with dementia, family members, care partners, and organizations. We want to know what are some of the gaps we're seeing in our healthcare system as well. What are some of the gaps that we're going to see in the future and then what initiative can we have that can help support our community?”
If you or a loved one has lived experience with dementia or is a caregiver, PGHPCS encourages you to complete an online survey to help develop their care.
