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Jan Jenssen of Hospice Simcoe gives the Barrie Advance a tour through the highly anticipated Hospice Simcoe House in Barrie.

A tour of Hospice’s new house

BY Leigh Blenkhorn March 23, 2009 16:03

The grin on Jan Janssen face grows as she walks through the doors of the new Hospice House.
“It’s an exciting time. It’s hard to believe,” said the executive director of Hospice Simcoe as she enters the home’s foyer. “It was way back when we did our first strategic plan, and there was one line that said we envision a residential home at some point. It’s really happened over the last two to three years.
The Penetanguishene Road house is set to open later this spring, and accept its first residents this summer.
Janssen took The Advance on a tour of the nearly complete facility to show off the residential hospice, which includes 10 private rooms, an indoor courtyard and garden, a quiet area, a spa for residents, as well as a kitchen and dinning area.
“There is a natural dividing point between the administrative and core-programs edge,” Janssen said as she walked through the house. “We will be having support groups, circle of friends and all those things at this end (front), plus our offices. And then at this end (back) is where all of our actual residential bedrooms are and our nursing station.”
Janssen said she is most excited about the bedrooms, which contain cabinets with Murphy-beds inside them.
“The residents bed can be put down to the same level as the Murphy so family members can stay overnight and sleep directly beside their loved one,” she said. “I don’t know any other hospice that has this.”
Hospice is one of three local organizations getting set to take the next step in offering health support services to area residents.
Rotary House, to be located on the Royal Victoria Hospital’s property, will be a lodge for cancer care patients.
Suzanne Legue, senior director of corporate communications at RVH, said they are currently working on finalizing plans for the new Rotary House.
“At this point, the detailed plan has not gone to our board of directors yet,” she said. “We continue to explore which options will provide the best service to our community, while making best use of the limited space on hospital property.”
Three local Rotary clubs pledged $1.25 million to the RVH’s I Believe Campaign to be used for the house.
Preliminary plans call for Rotary House to be located in a four-storey building known as the north-east building, which will also hold the new family medicine teaching unit.
The goal is to have the building connected to the RVH through an underground tunnel.
While not finalized yet, plans call for 20 rooms to service patients and their families, a dining room, a laundry facility and a room for group and individual activities.
Across the street from the RVH, Gildas Club is getting set to break ground on their new 10,000-square-foot clubhouse.
“There will be a complete cycle of cancer care. There will the Rotary House for overnight care and Gilda’s for all these wonderful programs,” she said. “We are free of charge; no one will ever be turned away.”
The clubhouse will include a teen room, an area for children, different rooms to hold support group meetings in, and a kitchen for demonstrations on health and nutrition.
“We hope to be open next year at this time,” Goodreau said.
For more information, visit www.hospicesimcoe.com, www.rvh.on.ca, and www.gildasclubbarrie.org

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