Irene Thomas Hospice - Fraser Health Authority

I am grateful for the Delta Hospice Society for upholding integrity, dignity and value of human life. They promote peace not death and that is why I must thank you all.

this review does not reflect the care team or support staff. it is a reflection of the inability of the new board to have compassion for and understand the needs of all dying people, not just person(s) with certain belief systems.

The new Board, not the Care team, staff and all the volunteers who do great work, are now refusing MAiD (medical assistance in dying.) People who want to die with dignity and want MAiD must be moved even if this is going to cause a lot of pain and stress to the patient and family. Their last wish is refused just to satisfy the new Boards Christian Values. Values that are clearly against the law. This is a publicly funded facility in an area that clearly supports MAiD. Fraser Health has to step up and stop funding this facility until MAiD is once again permitted. The new President, Angelina Ireland, shame on you.

They took such good care of my mom while she was staying here. As a child, they also had great areas for children as well as counselors which really helped me cope. The food was great, it was always clean, and they had therapy dogs, which was great for me and my siblings.

The nurses and support staff are real angels.. My sister Sue was here in her last stage of cancer. They cater their efforts to the specifics of each patient. They are professional gentle respectful and caring.. I couldn't have asked for a better place for my sister in her last days. They are kind and caring to family who come and visit.

The nurses and support staff... are walking angels on earth. My mom was here in her last stage of cancer. They cater their efforts to the specifics of each patient. They are gentle and caring and very professional. I couldn't have asked for a better place for my mom in her last days. They are also very supportive to friends and family who come and visit. The resource centre on site is also extremely helpful.

I am incredibly grateful for the exceptional care provided to my mother who was a patient at the Irene Thomas Hospice from November 2019. Words cannot express how grateful we are for the kind and compassionate care that my mother received during her greatest time of need. Thank you seems inadequate for the exceptional care and professionalism of your nurses and palliative care physicians. They took such great care of her and made her journey to heaven peaceful, pain free and calm. The palliative care resident helped our family during key decision making processes and the nurses ensured that my mother was comfortable and pain free. Staff were supportive, open and non-judgmental listeners who respected the dignity of my mother’s needs, hopes, feelings, autonomy and personal values. We will be eternally grateful for this support during the last 10 days of my mother’s life. The Irene Thomas hospice was with such a positive experience and frankly, a more beautiful place than I had expected to spend during the last few days of my mother’s life. It transformed an incredible stressful and sad time in our lives into a time of peace where we could simply focus on enjoying being with my mom and each other. Your team was supportive, helpful and empathetic to my family without being overbearing or obtrusive. We were able to experience the atmosphere of calmness and tranquility as soon as we walked through the hospice doors. The hospice is truly a special gift to our community. Since my parents lived in Delta for over 45 years, my mother loved Delta and was passionate about the local community. She felt that she lived in a generous community of people who were invested in making Delta the best that it can be. My mother felt truly fortunate to receive such exceptional care from a hospice within her own community. My mother was a retired Registered Nurse and Registered Psychiatric Nurse who had a distinguished career at the Fraser Health Authority for over 30 years. She graduated at the top of her class and found her true calling helping people. Her life’s work was devoted to helping adults with special needs. Throughout her nursing career she was not only well respected but revered. She was never afraid to ruffle feathers and ask the tough questions. She was world-renowned for not holding back her opinion and a knack for telling it like it is. She always told you the truth even if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear. Over the years my mother never hesitated to raise concerns about safety risk and quality issues in patient care. In the acute care setting, my mother became so extremely frustrated, distressed and exasperated by the quality of care and lack of respect for her dignity that she wrote a formal complaint to the Fraser Health Authority raising significant safety issues in an effort to minimize medical complications, maximize patient outcomes and reduce liability. This negative experience in the acute care setting stood in stark contrast to the exceptional care, non-judgmental attitude and respect delivered by staff at the Irene Thomas Hospice for my mother’s dignity. The care received at the hospice far exceeded her extremely high expectations. Thank you again for supporting my mother and our family during our greatest time in need. Shortly after my mother’s death, our family began to pay it forward. At my mother's funeral we asked our family and friends to consider honouring my mother's life by taking a moment to be kind to someone who needs it. Visit a nursing home resident or hospice resident. Forgive someone. Go the extra mile for a child. Help a neighbour. Call a friend or relative who could really use a phone call. Donate your time to a non-profit. Or maybe just call your mom. You simply never know how big your impact you be on someone else's life. Thank you again for your support.

It's been 3 years now, yet I still can't put in to words, or type without tearing up, how incredibly helpful this lovely place was in guiding my family through the most difficult times we had ever had to face. If it weren't for the caring staff, the soothing puzzles set up beside the fireplace, and the peaceful rooms provided, I don't know that I would have ever been able to come to terms with losing such an important person in my life. Thank you for all that you do