History of Kensington Hospice
When Kensington Hospice opened its doors in 2011, in the former Chapel of St. John the divine, the vision was clear: to create a beautiful positive place in downtown Toronto for people to receive end-of-life care. This means so many things, from easing the physical and psychological pain of residents, to supporting family members and friends during the final stage of their loved one’s illness, and for up to a year after death. It also means providing resources to celebrate and commemorate lives lived, which is to say, in many ways, that the very heartbeat of the hospice is not death, but life. This is what makes hospice care so unique.
In fact, the Kensington Health Foundation believed in the hospice-care model so much that the original, 10-bed hospice was completely self-funded. (The government eventually agreed to pay for direct-care services, but the Foundation continues to cover all psycho-social elements of the hospice, including offerings like music therapy, caregiver support, nutrition services, volunteer coordination and bereavement support.)
The future of Kensington Hospice
Fast-forward seven years, and Kensington Hospice has been an integral part of the care offered at Kensington Health. The number of beds available to those in need, however, has been an unfortunate limitation.
“We haven’t been able to offer services to everyone who applies because we are just too small,” says Debbie Emmerson, Director of Hospice Care.
“So in 2016, when the government recognized the value in the hospice model and mandated future support for hospice services, we applied and were given the resources to accommodate nine additional beds.”
The organization was ecstatic to have confirmation of funding for such a significant expansion of services, but the question became, where are these beds going to go?
“Once we were given the green light, we brought in an architect to do a feasibility study of existing space, in order to find the perfect spot,” says Justine Humphries, Director of Corporate Planning and Communications. “The study put forward a great recommendation that we could accommodate the beds in an underutilized area on the main floor of the North Building of our long-term care home, Kensington Gardens.”
What to expect
The location of the new hospice area is close enough to the original site that staff members will be able to go back and forth via a covered walkway through a private green space, which will help with the need for the two hospice areas feels like one home, beyond the shared staff and administration. Given that the new space isn’t a separate entity but and expansion of the current hospice, this is essential.
“It’s really important that we replicate the feelings of the original hospice—the warmth, the coziness—in the common areas, the living space and the dining area as well as the resident rooms,” says Humphries.
“We have plans for some really beautiful additions, too, like a private terrace with views of a custom, living wall and a therapeutic water garden. We’ve also integrated new features, in order to offer new services to our community. For example, we’ve included an exam room and a community room to support a hospice day program offered in partnership with the Kensington’s Second Mile Club. The hospice day program will provide a variety of support services to palliative patients living in the community, as many people in the community choose to die at home. The new out-patient clinic will also provide clinical and medical support for symptom management.”
Emmerson is looking forward to continuing with the important work of the hospice in an expanded way, knowing the impact of the hospice has already had in the GTA.
Rendered image of what the expanded Hospice bedroom would look like.
Rendered image of what the expanded hospice common room would look like.
The goal of The Kensington Hospice is to provide quality of life for whatever time remains.
“We all die,” says Emmerson. “We want to take the elephant out of the room and start to embrace death.”
For Kensington Health, helping people live well is a way of doing that, of honouring and celebrating someone’s contributions. “Everyone with a life-limiting illness deserves to have valuable moments for as long as possible. Those can be big—we’ve had parties and weddings in the hospice—and small—like the taste of a raspberry, or a big bowl of Rice Krispies in the morning.” With the hospice expansion, tentatively set to open its doors in spring 2019, Kensington Hospice will be able to provide more of those moments than ever before.