Comfortable recliners and couches, wall units for mementos and photographs, custom draperies on the windows: an inviting family living room?
No, this describes the newly refurbished hospice guest rooms at the Sunshine Coast Hospice facility in the Shorncliffe residential care home. A family gathering room is also available, situated between the two hospice rooms and which, through a private grant, has also been updated with a new flatscreen television and a new pullout couch for family members to spend the night if they wish.
The aim of the Hospice Society is to provide clients and their family members with the most comfortable, functional and tranquil environment possible during a very challenging time in their lives. The typical hospice stay for a client is six days. Currently there are only two beds available for the entire Sunshine Coast and they are in constant use, with many people not able to take advantage of them to pass their final days in a place of quiet and comfort.
With a generous grant of $3500 from the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation in 2014, a team of Hospice volunteers led by Bev Nielsen, a Hospice Board member and interior designer, was able to refresh and update the room; after years of constant use, the refurbishing was a much needed facelift.
A big thank you from our Hospice Society goes out, not only to the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation for their grant, but also to Paul’s Paintin’ Place for the donated paint, to Kern’s for the room furnishings at a deeply discounted price and Sound Attraction for the flat screen television. Thanks and much gratitude to Marina McBride for working closely with Hospice on this project and for the maintenance staff at the Shorncliffe Intermediate Care Facility for doing all the painting and wall unit construction.
The rooms have a new, fresh look and one day in the near future, the Society hopes to realize their vision of being able to offer at least six such restful rooms for Coast residents in their final days.
