Elk Valley Hospice Chair Diane Souccar met with Bambi Bodie, LPN supervisor and Deborah Friesen, the Administrator of Lilac Terrace in Sparwood. The purpose of the visit was to view the new Palliative Care room, which opened last month and to discuss how Elk Valley Hospice can help provide support to clients. Diane Souccar is impressed with how well the room is equipped for end of life care and with the adjacent room where family and friends can stay to be close to their loved ones.
Diane Souccar donated several copies of the books A Care Giver’s Guide and Final Gifts to Lilac Terrace on behalf of Elk Valley Hospice. These books will provide a valuable resource for clients, their family and friends.
A Care Giver’s Guide can provide helpful information to any one dealing with end of life care.
“As you take care of someone with a terminal illness, you are facing what many describe as one of the toughest, but possibly most rewarding challenges of life. It is not going to be easy. Although you may not be able to stop your loved one from dying, you can help to make the last days more comfortable. Care at this stage of life is called palliative care or hospice care,” (from A Care Givers Guide).
In the book Final Gifts two hospice nurses share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill. Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts—of wisdom, faith, and love—that the dying leave for the living to share.
Both books are also available to borrow from the Hospice Kiosk at the Elk Valley Hospital and from the public library.