A new eight-bed hospice surrounded by colourful gardens and lush greenery and woods, is scheduled to open in Roberts Creek in 2026.
Renovations to the existing Victorian-style home on Mossy Rock Road, will begin in mid-2025 and, once complete, will feature eight comfortable, private rooms, as well as dedicated spaces for visiting family, a kitchen where loved ones can make meals, a sacred space for quiet reflection, a range of therapeutic services designed to provide a meaningful, dignified end-of-life journey, and outdoor spaces to enjoy.
The new facility will be owned by the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society and managed by Vancouver Coastal Health to provide compassionate, end-of-life care to terminally ill patients while enabling them and their loved ones to spend time in a quiet, home-like setting on the Sunshine Coast.
Tess Huntly, executive director of Coast Hospice, says the project has been in the works for decades and is the end result of the leadership and hard work of past and current board members, staff, volunteers and donors.
“The vision of a dedicated residential hospice for this Coast community has been part of our organization for many, many years and I think that really needs to be emphasized,” says Huntly. “So, I'm just fortunate to be here at this stage when we are able to move forward with this partnership and actually see the project come to fruition.”
For 20 years, there were only two hospice beds available on the Coast, which were located in a now-defunct, long-term care facility. When the new Silverstone long-term care facility opened this past January, four temporary hospice beds were included. Huntly says those beds will remain in use until the new Roberts Creek hospice opens. The total cost for the project is $6 million, with $4 million already secured.
"We are very grateful for the collaborative partnership with Silverstone to be able to double the number of hospice beds for Coast residents, in a caring and supportive setting, while we continued to work towards the goal of a permanent dedicated home for hospice," says Huntly. "Staff of Silverstone and Coast Hospice volunteers will work together to support palliative residents during this project's completion."
Huntly notes, Hospice House in Davis Bay will remain open and continue to offer programs, such as grief groups, and supports, including volunteer training, during and following the completion of the renovations of the new hospice.
Huntly says given a choice, most people want to die in their own home, but adds for many reasons, that’s not always possible.
“Sometimes the care is not available. Sometimes it's a choice that people make to want to live out their last days elsewhere, but they want a home-like environment and that's what we want to create,” she says. “And what we've always wanted to create is a tranquil, beautiful home-like space, so that people can gather their families and friends around them and really make the most of the time that they have left.”
With so few hospice beds previously available on the Coast, some people in search of palliative care have been forced to spend their last days in other communities, often leaving family members and friends behind when they’re needed most. Huntly says, another option is to die at home with the support and assistance of volunteers trained through Sunshine Coast Hospice. She notes, some people die at home because they simply don’t have any other options and that’s when trained volunteers step up.
“Our volunteers have done that for many years and will continue to provide that support to people wherever they are,” says Huntly. “The concern was that if their choice was for a residential hospice setting and their care needs really demanded that level of support, it just wasn't available in enough capacity. And so now we're really delighted that it's going to be able to meet that need. If people make that choice, and that's what their needs indicate, then it's going to be there for them.”
Huntly adds, with so many residents of the Coast drawn to the outdoors, the tranquil setting of the new hospice and its connection to nature couldn’t be more ideal.
“It's part of what draws us here and it's part of what keeps us here,” she says. “So, it's really understandable that at the end of a person's life, they also want to maintain that connection with the natural world and so being able to have a hospice that is surrounded by gardens and trees and birds is going to really make an impact, I think, on that experience for a lot of people.”
