CARE
ROYAL
VICTORIA
HOSPITAL
PALLIATIVE
CARE UNIT
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
PHOTOS
Palliative care has 1 full-time doctor, 1 part-time doctor and 2-4 nurses continuously on staff. There are also volunteers at the hospital, 3 per shift in the day as well as a psychologist. The ward offers services such as music therapy, occupational therapy, bereavement specialists.
Each room is also furnished with a hide abed for family members that wish to stay over night. At the end of the wing, there is a solarium for patients and/or their families. This room is also being used for monthly memorial services. As well, there is a piano in the room for entertaining anyone on the floor.
For more detail on the building program of the palliative ward, please visit my analysis of program page. The important here to note, however, is that all the rooms are undersized at the hospital. There is a huge lack of general space, as well as storage space.
MONTREAL
GENERAL
HOSPITAL
PALLIATIVE
CARE UNIT
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
The facilities are even smaller at the Montreal General Hospital (10 beds) than at the Royal Victoria Hospital (16 beds). The services here are even more limited here and the furnishing is much more humble. Although what the two wards do have in common is the solarium. Here also, there is a piano present. Music is most definitely an important aspect of therapy and must be taken into consideration for this thesis.
Guelph, Ontario
Canada
The volunteers either visit the home or the hospital room of the client. They offer support for family members as well.
They also have a drop-in day center where support group meetings are held for parents of children with life threatening illnesses.
The therapeutic programs which are offered include Tai Chi, Therapeutic Touch, Reiki, Visualization, Sculpture, and Client Luncheons.
HOSPICE
ASSOCIATION
OF
ONTARIO
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
The Hospice Association of Ontario, is not a hospice in itself. Rather it is a provincial membership association which was established in 1989 by eight independent hospice organizations. Their objective is to encourage, develop and support the voluntary community hospice movement in Ontario.
On their website they discuss many services that may be offered by their members. Some of which are as follows: emotional support, personal care, respite care, spiritual support, financial and legal planning, hospice services for children, bereavement support.
The HAO is also involved in created public awareness through the Annual Hospice Awareness week, as well as through the brochures and other materials promoting hospice. Furthermore, they offer educational and communication materials, fundraising support, and group programs. They also organize an annual conference which involves a variety of workshop sessions led by experts in the field.
LISAARD
HOUSE
CHARITABLE
FOUNDATION
Cambridge, Ontario
Canada
The Lisaard House is a home for people that are dying of cancer. The location of this hospice provides privacy, peace, quiet, and tranquility in a natural setting.
The focus here is to give compassionate care to the patients and to offer respite for their families. As with every other hospice, the emphasis here is also to live each day to its fullest. The home is a place where patients and their families can set their own daily pace, celebrate special occasions, and control the final days.
Other Projects
Click picture for larger image
Main Room, The Renfrew Center, Philadelphia
Designed by Tony Atkins and Associates, Philadelphia
1983-1985
This psychiatric treatment center was modeled on the nineteenth-century
estate hospitals of England, which typically had picturesque rural settings.
(Verderber et al., p. 168.)
Click picture for larger image
(copyright Maxwell Mackenzie)
Private Patient Room
Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland
Designed by RTKL Architects.
There, residentialist furnishings, appropriate lighting, wall alcoves, carpet, artwork, and bedside computerization technology gave the rooms an inviting residential ambiance while avoiding a bland caricature of home, hotel, or hospital. Additionally, the windows afforded full-height views unencumbered by furnishings or equipment. (Verderber et al., p. 218.)
