Jessica's House
The Vision
Jessica’s House has a very special meaning for the South Huron community, named in honour of 22-year old Jessica Hamather who lost her life in 2015 to an extremely rare cancer. Maria Hamather, Co-Chair of the Steering Committee believes that this community hospice is an important goal for South Huron. “Our family supports the plans to create a beautiful residential hospice in South Huron, providing much needed support for families during a difficult time. We are proud to work on this project with the South Huron Hospital Foundation and we know Jessica would have loved this wonderful and peaceful space. We are thankful to the Bean Family for this generous commitment to make Jessica’s House a reality, and to our amazing community for all of its support’.
Jessica’s House will act as the heart of palliative support services including both current programs and an expanded set of services such as; Day Wellness programs for individuals diagnosed with life threatening illnesses, a Bereavement support program, Horticultural Therapy Sessions, a Men’s Prostate Cancer Support group, a Suicide Support group, and a Children’s Bereavement Support program. Patients and their families will come to the hospice for the compassionate, medical, and emotional care that they need at the end-of-life.
Access to residential hospice beds is an issue in Huron County as identified by the SW LHIN. Although most people would prefer to die at home, most die in hospital. Aside form the compassionate aspect of this, care terminally ill patients in an acute-care hospital is estimated to cost over 40% mor than providing care in a hospital-based palliative-care unit. This is more than double the cost of providing care in a hospice bed and over 10 times more than providing at-home care.
(Source: Bonnie Lysyk, Autditor General, December 9, 2014)
The Design
Jessica’s House will provide:
- 3 one patient rooms
- a quiet room for one-on-one support for family meetings
- fully equipped kitchen for residents and guests
- landscaped with beautiful gardens to allow for meditation and reflection
- music, art and group activities for children and people who are experiencing grief and loss
- bereavement support program
The South Huron Hospice Steering Committee is committed to creating Jessica’s House with a vision that is achievable, realistic, honourable and valuable for our community.
The Campaign Video
We are so proud to share with you the video we launched at our Gala on June 3, 2016. The launch of a campaign to fund a residential Hospice called Jessica’s House as part of a ‘unified solution for the provision of palliative care resources in Huron and Perth’ was the focus of the evening, and a powerfully local and emotional video was presented as part of the launch. Jessica’s House captures exactly the spirit of what we are hoping this residential house can be: a bright, beautiful place that welcomes people of all ages and genders. The name also honours a your person lost too soon to our community.