Category: News

At this time of year, enjoying the holidays can feel difficult if you are grieving. You may even feel guilty for being joyful (even if it is fleeting) because joy and grief are often treated as opposite emotions that should not meet. After someone has died, it is important to be able to acknowledge pain and sadness during special occasions – to be able to integrate honouring the person into a time you may have typically enjoyed and looked forward to.

Each year Hospice supports clients and community members to honour the death of someone they are connected, to  by lighting a tree and inviting people to remember by writing a message or the name of the person who died on a paper dove and attaching it to the tree. The template for the dove is available here and you are welcome to print a dove and drop it by Hospice or to print doves for use in your own home over the holidays.

Here are some resources recommended by Hospice staff that you may find helpful at this time:

• Hospice Peterborough’s informational booklet Getting Through the Holidays with Grief
• A story on how one person found new meaning in the holidays
• The Canadian resource mygrief.ca
• Coping with Holidays and Family Celebrations by Helen Fitzgerald
• Helping Yourself Heal During the Holiday Season by Alan D. Wolfelt

At the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards on October 17th, 2018, the Hospice Peterborough team heard our name called as the winner for the Not-for-Profit category. We were honoured to have been nominated alongside the Canadian Canoe Museum and the YWCA Peterborough-Haliburton, and to win takes our breath away.  

Shelley Barrie, President of the Hospice Peterborough Board of Directors, accepted the award for Not-for-Profit Excellence on behalf of Executive Director, Linda Sunderland, saying,

“We are in the middle of a transformation at Hospice Peterborough which will see us expand our services to include 24/7 end-of-life care in our stunning new Care Centre, at the corner of London and Reid streets. I look out in the room tonight and see so many who have invested their time, advice, support expertise, and made significant donations to bring this project to life.”

Thank you to the Chamber of Commerce and our category sponsor, Community Foundation of Greater Peterborough for this privilege. And thank you to our community. Without the support of our donors, sponsors and volunteers, our mission to provide care for those facing life-threatening illness and grief would not be possible.

“Together we are building our community’s hospice – this award is for you!”- Shelley Barrie, President, Board of Directors, Hospice Peterborough

Hospice Peterborough is pleased to announce that Dr. John Beamish has accepted the position of Medical Director for the new Hospice Residence being constructed at 325 London Street in Peterborough. The 10-bed Residence will provide around-the-clock, active, end-of-life care, in a supportive environment for Hospice clients and family members – a first for our community. The Residence will be a place where the focus is on compassionate care not cure, and where it will be fine to slow the clock, breathe fresh air through the windows and perhaps hear the birds one last time.

In 1988 Dr. Beamish was one of the founding members of Hospice Peterborough and has been a continuous presence with the organization since that time, offering support to staff and volunteers, and most lately as a member of our Every Moment Matters Campaign Cabinet. In his role as Medical Director, Dr. Beamish will provide medical insight and leadership to both the Hospice Residence and the Peterborough Palliative Care Community Team.

“For those working in the front lines of palliative care, the opening of this new building is the realization of a long held dream of Hospice Peterborough becoming a central hub for the delivery of hospice palliative care,” said Dr. Beamish. “I am excited to work with the team seeking to transform the dream into a vital, vibrant part of our caring community.”

Please join Hospice Peterborough in welcoming Dr. Beamish into this new role – which will enable the organization to strengthen local communities by offering another choice for end of life care alongside its long-standing home support program, day program, grief programs, caregiver, family and wellness support programming.