'Community dream' of Halifax hospice rising in south end

Nova Scotia's first palliative care home is under construction and should open this year.

Gordon Neal, the CEO of Hospice Halifax, said construction started in fall 2017 and continued through the winter. The foundations are all in and the structural steel is going up, soon to be followed by framing.

"We're planning [to open] on Oct. 1," he said.

It will be a 10-bedroom facility and the organization expects to welcome over 400 people and their families within the first three years of operation.

"The focus on having a residential hospice is to maintain a home-like setting instead of an institutional setting," Neal said.

The 10 suites will have private baths and a room for the residents, with a pull-out sofa and chairs for family and friends.

The upper floor will have a kitchen and a "great room," offering living and dining space with a large terrace giving views of the Northwest Arm.

Hospice Halifax has yet to finalize the admissions criteria, but it will likely involve referrals from nurses and doctors. Fuller plans will come out in May.

Neal said the organization is hoping to raise about $7 million and has asked Halifax Regional Municipality to contribute $1 million.

Focus on homey comfort

Dr. Stephanie Connidis of the the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association said the facility will be a valuable option for people wishing to die at home, but who are unable to do so.

She said Nova Scotia has no residential hospices and the province needs about 70 beds. The 10 beds in Hospice Halifax will be a step in that direction.

"It's a community dream," she told Information Morning Monday.

The hospice held public sessions at the Halifax Central Library Monday to learn what the community wants in the hospice.

"What we will have are rooms that can be made homey so they won't look like a hospital room," Connidis said. "People can then bring things that are important to them in the room. We have a philosophy that we're going into your space, you're not coming into our space."

She said in palliative care, the focus is on the person's emotional and spiritual well-being and pain management. 

"We will all die. What we're trying to change is what that looks like," she said. "What does it look like to be dying in Nova Scotia? It doesn't need to look like a hospital room in an acute-care setting."