Making an Impact in Our Community
The OutCare Foundation works with and supports hospice organizations that are a part of the Champlain Health Region. We regularly communicate with our hospice network, who are on the front-line in delivering palliative care via group Zoom calls. These important calls provide the opportunity for hospices to share insights and experience. Their feedback informs our understanding of current needs, funding gaps and opportunities so that grants can be awarded as needed.
Our Hospice Network
How Donations are Used
Your donations are invested in much needed palliative care programs throughout the Champlain Health Region through OutCare grants. It is exciting to hear how these funds helped deliver innovative and compassionate care to patients and their loved ones.
Your donations helped:
- Beth Donovan Hospice to develop and implement an outreach plan to recruit and train new volunteers;
- Dianne Morrison Hospice at the Ottawa Mission to purchase a portable oxygen concentrator and an electric high-low hospital bed.
- Home Hospice North Lanark to provide training for non-paid caregivers and palliative care volunteers; and
- Carefor Pembroke Community Hospice Program to connect to foster connections with caregivers of palliative clients by providing them with Care Kits.
Ongoing Initiatives
We are continually adapting and responding to the changing needs in the community. Here are some of our ongoing initiatives:
Grief care kits help bereaved individuals navigate their journey, with specific kits for both adults and children.
Demand for bereavement support is unprecedented due to Covid and our hospices need help. Last year, OutCare provided funding to Carefor Hospice Cornwall to create grief care kits for their clients. We believe that the grief care kits are an invaluable tool to help address current demand and want to make them available to any hospice within the Champlain Health Region.
Grief Care Kits can include:
- Grief education resources
- Contact information for bereavement services
- Comfort items
- Journal
- Stuffed animal
You can support this project by making a donation here.
The OutCare Foundation is working with the Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program to transition their invaluable “Caregiver Training Course” training program from an in-person course to an online program.
Caregivers learn everything from how to navigate the hospice palliative care system and communicating difficult subjects to how to help someone out of bed or manage their medication.
There is also a module that focuses on caregiver self-care, an area that is often neglected.
Every year, the OutCare Foundation provides bursaries for palliative care volunteers to attend the Palliative Education Day presented by the Champlain Hospice Palliative Care Program. Volunteers play a critical role in palliative care and by funding their training, we can enhance their skills and build care capacity.
Update: We were excited to hear that Beth Donovan Hospice has been able to offer virtual reality experiences to their clients. COVID has created roadblocks in getting our Virtual Reality Pilot off the ground. OutCare has purchased the equipment for four pilot sites: headsets, tablets and Cleanboxes to sanitize the headsets between use. Beth Donovan has received their kit and virtual training but changing health restrictions have limited opportunities for its use. We look forward to a time when we can regroup and bring our other pilot sites on board.
The OutCare Foundation is partnering with four area hospices that offer day programs to provide Day Hospice guests to experience Virtual Reality. Virtual Reality can provide guests with the opportunity to fulfill a dream or desire they may have but due to their illness, are no longer able to pursue. This pilot project has three goals:
- To improve the quality of life for Day Hospice guests by offering a VR experience
- To explore the value and feasibility of offering VR technology in a Day Hospice setting
- To examine the accessibility of VR technology and the practicality of implementing VR programming in Day Hospices across Eastern Ontario.
The OutCare Foundation is working with hospices to ensure that they have the appropriate tools to sterilize equipment and furniture. Read how an industrial steamer is helping Beth Donovan Hospice keep their medical equipment lending program operational. Read more
Success Stories
Grants Program
The OutCare Foundation has funded community-based palliative in the Champlain Health Region since 2001. We provide support for equipment, volunteer training and to programs that give respite for family and friends caring for palliative patients.
We have expanded our reach in a new direction to focus on programs that deliver in-home palliative care to patients that have chosen to remain at home. By offering two rounds of funding per year, we can be more responsive to the changing needs of the hospices in our community.
We do not fund requests for administration, deficit reduction, capital campaigns or individuals.
