Saint Elizabeth Foundation and Journey Home Hospice, along with SE Health, once again had an exceptional presence at the Annual Hospice Palliative Care Ontario Conference. Over 800 delegates gathered for the opening plenary panel featuring our own Nancy Lefebre, SVP, COO, SE Health, who was joined by special invited guest, Helen Simmons, CEO, St Christopher’s, Susan Blaker, and Deanna Bryant, both from Ontario Palliative Care Network. The panel discussed the importance of providing ‘palliative care everywhere, for everyone’, with the conversation highlighting key accomplishments and gaps in health equity in Ontario, Canada, and beyond.
The opening day of the conference also saw two Journey Home Hospice volunteers, Patrick and Laura, join the June Callwood Award Circle of Outstanding Volunteers. This prestigious recognition was earned by Patrick for his generous efforts at the hospice bringing smiles and sharing his presence with our patients and team members, in addition to acting as a community advocate and fundraiser. Laura generously gives of her time to help with administrative tasks and shares her adorable dog, Mik, with the community through the Elizz Paws Companion Dog Visiting program. We are incredibly thankful for Patrick and Laura’s continued contributions. Congratulations!
Day 2 of the conference saw specialized teams from Journey Home Hospice and the Central Toronto SE service delivery centre share their expertise through workshops with conference delegates. Central Toronto’s palliative team presented on the topic of “Equitable palliative care, tackling social determinants of health head-on in our diverse urban community,” sharing insight into incorporating inclusivity and empathy into end-of-life care planning.
Meanwhile, Journey Home Hospice’s Executive Director, Fr. Dr. Matthew Durham, Director of Care, Felicia Kontopidis, and Manager of Psychosocial Wellness & Outreach, Joanna Brownridge, and were onsite to discuss Hospice Care for Structurally Vulnerable Populations. It was a wonderful chance to share learnings from over 6 years as part of the hospice’s commitment to exchanging knowledge and enabling others!
Kontopidis also presented alongside Brittany Hertz, Program Lead, SE First Nations, Inuit and Métis Program, on a new collaboration Telemedicine program. Telemedicine Consultation to Improve End-of-Life Care in Rural and Remote Indigenous Communities in Ontario brings together our expertise in trauma-informed, culturally safe, and harm-reducing approaches to care with the FNIM program’s cultural competency to offer second-level support to health care providers working in rural and remote Indigenous communities.
Student researcher, Mary Anne Olalia, Toronto Metropolitan University and Celina Carter, RN, PhD, Research Scientist for the SE Research Centre presented survey findings about stress, wellbeing, and use of resources by staff and volunteers in a hospice for people experiencing homeless. Key takeaways highlighted that this workforce is new to hospice palliative care and has high satisfaction in their ability to provide effective care but they use few resources to support workplace well-being = opportunity to co-design meaningful supports to sustain capacity.
With the conference bringing together healthcare professionals from across the province, the Foundation recognized the need for a space to allow for conversations about death, dying, grief and loss. We were pleased to once again our offer community-based grief support to in the form of the Reflection Room® Project for the duration of the weekend event. It was also a wonderful way to display a Reflection Room ahead of a HIT Talk on how the Reflection Room has been adapted to address pandemic-related grief and loss.
The talk, co-presented by Lefebre and Carter, offered insight into not only how the Reflection Room prompts discussions of grief and loss, but also help patients, health care providers, caregivers, and more cope with pandemic-related loss through storytelling. To date, the Reflection Room has now been distributed to 300+ organizations as part of the Foundation’s charitable mission of supporting end-of-life journeys for people most in need.
During the conference’s closing gala celebration, it was a joy to see Journey Home Hospice supporters Henry and Lina Iacobelli, their family, and their companies Primo, Unico, and Sun-Brite Foods honoured with the Outstanding Philanthropist Award for their exceptional contributions to the hospice movement, including JHH’s Toronto and Windsor sites. The Honourable Michael Tibollo, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Ontario, brought greetings on behalf of Premier Doug Ford and accepted the award alongside Durham on behalf of the family.
We are incredibly grateful to Hospice Palliative Care Ontario for recognizing the extraordinary contributions of the Iacobelli Family, honouring our volunteers, and for yet again hosting an extraordinary conference experience filled with learning.