Baie-des-Chaleurs Palliative Care Home: a mobilizing project!

The Baie-des-Chaleurs Palliative Care Home project was initiated in 2019 to provide the Gaspésie region with this type of infrastructure.

Increasingly present throughout Quebec, palliative care homes offer human and personalized support to people and their loved ones at the end of life. To date, Magdalen Islands and Northern Quebec are the only two administrative regions in Quebec that do not have one.

Peaceful, warmhearted and safe, the Baie-des-Chaleurs Palliative Care Home will have four bedrooms and will offer end of life services to people and their loved ones.

It will rely on a team of specialized professionals and caring volunteers to offer free of charge:

Mission, vision and values

Mission
To accommodate, accompany and relieve people in palliative and end-of-life care in a warmhearted and human environment, while offering support to their loved ones.

Vision
To be an organization resolutely supported by the community it serves, recognized for its humanistic values and its commitment to people in palliative and end-of-life care, as well as their loved ones.

Values
Kindness
Respect
Compassion
Solidarity
Dignity
Professionalism

Territory and location of the House

The Baie-des-Chaleurs Palliative Care Home will serve the MRC Avignon, which includes 10 municipalities, 1 city and 2 Mi’gmaq communities, as well as the MRC Bonaventure, which is made up of 10 municipalities and 3 cities. Bordered by Baie des Chaleurs, a body of salt water of exceptional beauty, these 2 MRCs covering 7916 km2 extend in the south of the Gaspé Peninsula.

The center of Baie-des-Chaleurs will be prioritized as the location for the House in order to better serve the population.

Major fundraising campaign

Part of the costs related to the care offered by the Home will be subsidized on a recurring basis by the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

However, setting up the project requires significant initial funding from the private and community sectors. In this context, the organization is currently setting up a major fundraising campaign and is working to mobilize the region’s socio-economic stakeholders around a campaign cabinet.

The amount collected will be used to cover the costs related to the House itself (land and building) and its equipment, as well as part of the budget for the first two years of operation.

The mobilization and generosity of the entire community are therefore essential to raise funds to make the project a reality!

Project history

2019

A committee of volunteers initiated the Baie-des-Chaleurs Palliative Care Home project with the aim of providing Gaspésie with a home of this type for people at the end of their lives.

2021

The project takes another step by becoming a non-profit organization.
A project manager is then hired.

2022

A board of directors of seven volunteer members with varied expertise and committed to providing Baie-des-Chaleurs with a palliative care home is set up.

The organization receives support from the two MRCs in its territory, Avignon and Bonaventure, the Gaspésie Integrated Health and Social Services Center, deputy Sylvain Roy and Service Secours Baie-des-Chaleurs. It is also counting on the support of the Baie-des-Chaleurs Health Foundation as a partner in its major fundraising campaign.

The organization is a member of the Alliance of Palliative Care Homes of Quebec, which will allow it to be supported in the different stages of the project.

La Grande Traversée de Simon, a unifying initiative by Dr. Simon Prévost, was the first fundraising activity for the Palliative Care Center. Having devoted most of his work to palliative care and sincerely wishing for the realization of the project, this family doctor crossed Canada by bicycle from the Yukon to Baie-des-Chaleurs (7,970 km) from mid-July to the end of September 2022 in order to collect donations. The enthusiasm of the population of Baie-des-Chaleurs for this generous and unifying initiative was such that the initial objective of $ 100,000 was shattered to reach the remarkable sum of $ 227,545.

Dr. Simon Prévost received the Performance and Influence Award category at the Recognition Gala of the Baie-des-Chaleurs Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This prize is awarded to a personality who has distinguished himself for all of his contribution to the region.

2023

Visits to palliative care homes are undertaken across Quebec to draw inspiration from existing models.

The Board of Directors is joining forces with the philanthropy firm Épisode to better structure the major fundraising campaign, which will spread over a few years.

The search for land for the palliative care home begins. The center of the Baie-des-Chaleurs territory is prioritized in order to best serve the population.