OLDS — The Olds & District Hospice Society (ODHS) has received the largest grant in its 10-year history.
The purpose of the ODHS is to provide help people and their families deal with end of life in as caring and compassionate a way as possible.
Specifically, the society received $74,500 via the Community Initiatives Program.
“The most that we’ve received in the past is $30,000, so this is quite a substantial increase,” ODHS executive director Mary Smith says.
Smith says they applied for that money to cover the cost for three things: executive director and service coordinator salaries; rent for hospice suites; as well as $15,000 to help fund four educational videos the society is producing.
The ODHS also received a $4,000 cheque from Telus to help cover costs for the Nav-Care program the society operates.
Smith says the goal of that program is to help older adults who have received a terminal diagnosis cope with that and the isolation they feel.
“The Olds & District Hospice Society, while respecting the new protocols and social distancing the best we can, (is) still supporting individuals and families in need,” Smith says.
“We’re actually quite busy with the COVID-19 pandemic because we’re trying to reach out to all our clients, either by Facetime or phone,” she adds.
“And then we are still taking care of our hospice clients and a lot of our volunteers, they’re unable to go in to sit with clients, so then it’s me and (service coordinator) Ruby Elliott that are kind of sitting with more clients.”
The first educational video, A Volunteer Journey, was released April 20.
The next video to be rolled out will be A Client’s Journey.
“Probably now with COVID-19, it’s of course put the filming back a little bit. So we’re thinking (in about) five months we’ll have the second one released,” Smith says.
The videos are being created partly to celebrate the 10th anniversary of ODHS this year, but there’s another reason too.
“It’s also just to have more education out there on hospice palliative care, because a lot of people are still kind of scared about going to hospice or taking part in palliative care and it’s so beneficial for the individual and family,” Smith says.
“So this is really about advocating. We’ve shared it with other hospice societies that will also be using it as a tool for information, just to take away that fear of hospice.”
The videos are being filmed by Roadwest Pictures.
A donation from the Mountain View Film group as well as the Sylvan Lake Foundation plus the CIP grant will cover the rest of costs of the project, Smith said.
Smith says board member Charlene Schramm came up with the idea for the video project more than a year ago.
