Red River Valley Palliative Care

Training volunteers is an essential part of the charity especially to support those volunteers who we had little contact with during the pandemic. Several new volunteers have come to be trained which is partly dealt with on a regional basis in the fall (two workshop dates for new volunteers) and again in the spring when all volunteers and palliative care related personnel (nursing social work etc.) are invited to attend a regional conference to learn more about how we might support those at the end-of-life. Grief support is done via cards and phone calls after a family has experienced a loss. Volunteers and the coordinator take on this role. Each year near the end of November the charity hosts a community memorial in two different communities in the area where our facilities serve. A dozen or more families took part in each community after which Memorial lights are lit in memory of residents who have died in the last year or two. Memorial videos are also produced by volunteers and shown at this event. Advertising for this event is done through local papers and churches as well as posters. Residents of two local personal care homes and patients in the hospital's palliative care room are the main focus of support by the volunteers and the coordinator. The charity also maintains a 'friendly visitor' program to support lonely residents and clients especially those more isolated from their immediate families and former neighbours.

As health care evolves the palliative care community supports clients being able to stay in their own home with the support of Home Care. Those workers and Palliative Care nursing staff see a need to support clients in rural areas in their homes. Some Volunteers maintain a connection through phone messaging and others and the coordinator see the clients in person. Indigenous families who live on Reserves in rural Manitoba are seeking to get more palliative support. The charity has had guest speakers who are seeking answers to getting more support on reserve and volunteers have attend specific events 'Walk a Mile In My Moccasins' which are in-depth workshops designed to promote understanding of indigenous culture. Interest in grief support groups after a death in the family has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The charity has proposed to a local funeral director to speak about grief at a community presentation in order to open conversations about grief and to gauge social interest in working through grief.