THUNDER BAY — Ten thousand dollars will make a huge impact in Thunder Bay, says the executive director for Hospice Northwest.
“This award will highlight the work that everyone's doing to help people who are vulnerably housed in our community, and facing a life limiting illness get the care that they need,” said Donna Jeanpierre.
The organization won the first ever Equity in Action Award and its $10,000 prize, supported by the Mount Pleasant Group funeral and cemetery services, for its role in the local Palliative Advocacy Care Team (PACT), at the Hospice Palliative Care Ontario award gala in Toronto on June 9.
“I'm really hoping that this shines a light on the work that our team is doing,” Jeanpierre said.
The PACT team provides mobile and outreach palliative care services to people who are homeless or vulnerably housed and facing serious illnesses, according to a news release about the initiative. A disproportionate number of those people are Indigenous.
"With a focus on equitable, safer and enhanced quality of care, they endeavor to have no one die alone and that all individuals, regardless of their socio-economic background, have access to compassionate care and support."
Over a six-month period, PACT reported 481 client encounters across the city with 100 per cent of clients reporting increased access to care and feeling safe and understood, according to the release.
Despite their successes, the need continues to grow, said Jeanpierre.
The team has only one full-time employee, an outreach worker, supported by a medical professionals and representatives of several partner organizations.
“We’ve come to the point where one outreach worker isn’t enough,” she said. “We need a team. That’s our biggest challenge right now.”
With the cost of housing and day to day life increasing dramatically, Jeanpierre said that the demand PACT in Thunder Bay is increasing. Adding that homelessness is a pressing concern for the city.
“In Thunder Bay, like a lot of cities across North America and the world, we are seeing that things are getting more expensive and it's getting harder to afford housing and cars and we are seeing more people having struggles with paying for the daily things in life,” she said.
“Homelessness is a life-limiting illness,” she said.
“It's a diagnosis,” she said. “It's going to mean that you're going to have a hard time accessing all kinds of health care because your priorities are probably going to be just getting the food you need and the necessities of life for the day, as opposed to making sure you get to your cancer care appointment.”
“I think this team really goes above and beyond to make sure that people are getting that support,” she said.
Jeanpierre said on Thursday that the $10,000 will be used towards clients’ expenditures, so they are no longer forced to make difficult choices between essential needs like food, transportation or medical care.
Hospice Northwest serves the clients in the city and District of Thunder Bay with support in Greenstone, Terrace Bay, Schreiber, Marathon, Manitouwadge and Nipigon.
Jeanpierre said they are hoping to share the award funds throughout the district.
