The City of Niagara Falls will put out expression of interest requests for a service provider and site for a hospice centre in the community.

During Tuesday evening’s city council meeting, politicians unanimously approved a motion brought forward by Coun. Victor Pietrangelo to start the process of establishing such a facility.

“There’s an old saying: a journey of a thousand miles begins with one single step; so I’m hoping that we can take that first step tonight,” said Pietrangelo.

Politicians received a staff report for information purposes outlining a four-stage process for how the city can facilitate the project.

“If we can get the land and if we can get the hospice provider, then I think that gets us well underway moving forward,” said Jason Burgess, the city’s chief administrative officer.

Hospice palliative care aims to relieve suffering, provide comfort and improve the quality of life for people living with a terminal illness, along with their caregivers, family and friends.

To provide comfort, hospice facilities are purposely designed to reflect a residential home-like setting as opposed to an acute-care environment, which includes associated spaces enabling a resident’s family to be on site to support them.

In Niagara, hospice care is provided via Hospice Niagara, whose primary facility is the 10-bed Stabler Centre in St. Catharines.

Hospice Niagara is expanding its services with the addition of a 10-bed facility in Fort Erie, to be co-located on Niagara Region’s newly redeveloped Gilmore Lodge long-term-care site.

As well, 10 beds are to be built in conjunction with another long-term-care facility redevelopment project led by Club Richelieu in Welland.

“Even with the addition of these 20 new beds, Niagara can still be considered to be underserved as the region should have between 31 to 45 hospice beds based on provincial standards,” said a city report.

“The introduction of hospice care to Niagara Falls would help alleviate the region’s overall shortfall of hospice space. Also, from a perspective of service to residents, not having a hospice in the second largest community in Niagara causes hardship to many families.” 

Ray Spiteri is a St. Catharines-based reporter for the Niagara Falls Review. Reach him via email: raymond.spiteri@niagaradailies.com