The Ontario government is giving an additional $50,000 annually to the Margaret Bahen Hospice for bereavement programming.
Newmarket-Aurora MPP Dawn Gallagher Murphy visited the Queen Street hospice March 1 to announce the funding, which is part of a larger envelope, with the government providing the province's hospices a $147.4-million boost last June.
Hospice president and CEO Sonya Murray said it is important to provide funding to help boost hospices and their bereavement work.
It is “so important in the continuum of palliative care services, and I think we’ve really seen the need, especially since the pandemic,” she said. “This funding will go toward allowing us to continue providing these essential services and to enhance what we’re doing.”
Last June, the province announced that Margaret Bahen Hospice would receive $946,000 in one-time funding.
This new $50,000 in annualized funding is earmarked for bereavement work, Gallagher Murphy said. Although the hospice can decide how to allocate within that, Gallagher Murphy said it could be used for things ranging from check-in calls from volunteers, peer-led volunteer groups, educational supports and more.
“I know all the work that you do, being with families and patients, it is important work,” she said. “That’s $50,000 I know you will put to such meaningful work.”
Hospice senior vice-president of community services Kristen Caballero said funding could help expand the volunteer base, training and for their memory bear program, where they make teddy bears out of clothing for people to have a memento of their loved ones.
The additional funding boost received since last June has been significant, Murray said.
“It’s really been necessary funding. It’s been very challenging to fundraise for hospice, within this environment, and costs have risen exponentially” she said. “It’s been necessary to sustain the operations.”
Hospices are only partially funded by the government, with groups having to fundraise for the rest. For Margaret Bahen, that amounts to between $800,000 to $850,000 it has to fundraise annually, which Caballero said became more difficult during the pandemic.
“Demand for our services far exceeds the funding that we get publicly,” Caballero said. “There’s a huge reliance on our community donors to keep our operations running.”
The extra funding announced does not necessarily change that gap that must be filled by donors, Caballero said, but it does make a difference to help enhance programs.
“We’re grateful for the boosts in funding that we get, that we’re able to change or advance the programs that we’re delivering to the community,” she said.
Sustaining services does require government support, Murray said.
“We do recognize now that in order to continue to remain sustainable, we do need a higher proportion of our services funded by the government,” she said. “It's very challenging for us to rely on the community to fundraise about 50 per cent of our services.”
