Grey Highlands is going to consider giving Grey Bruce Hospice Chapman House $15,000 over the next three years.
Council will be reviewing a letter from Grey Bruce Hospice Executive Director Janet Fairbridge at its meeting this week, requesting $5,000 a year for the next three years from the municipality.
In the letter, Fairbridge says the hospice receives partial funding for their operational costs from the Ministry of Health each year, but this does not cover all the needed costs. The hospice does rely on the community to help raise an additional over $1.2 million each year through fundraising efforts.
“This financial support would assist Grey Bruce Hospice to continue to plan for the expected increase in needs for our community in a sustainable manner, while also allowing council to account for the support in your annual budget planning,” says Fairbridge.
Fairbridge says in the fiscal year of 2022-23, the hospice supported seven people who called Grey Highlands home. This represented 3.7 per cent of the 187 Grey Bruce residents cared for at Chapman House.
“The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association estimates that for every person who is cared for at a Canadian hospice, an additional five people receive support services, including grief and bereavement supports. This puts the number of people served by Grey Bruce Hospice at 935 in just one year. That number continues to grow,” says Fairbridge.
Council will consider supporting Grey Bruce Hospice at its meeting on Aug. 2 at 10 a.m.