Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Chad Klassen

HOSPICE CHANGES

Kamloops hospice using webcams to allow family to see loved ones under visitor restrictions

Mar 26, 2020 | 5:00 AM

KAMLOOPS — Watching a loved one enter hospice is hard enough. But imagine not being able to see them at all.

With the doors now locked at the Marjorie Willoughby Snowden Memorial Hospice Home, that is the reality facing families who have loved ones in hospice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Yesterday was a really sad day when we locked our doors at 7 o’clock last night,” said Executive Director of the Kamloops Hospice Society Wendy Marlow. “It’s a loss. We can’t serve families the way we always have.”

However, despite some layoffs and volunteers no longer able to visit the site, staff at the hospice home is doing everything it can to make an already difficult situation, a little easier. It reached out to the community on Facebook and has successfully secured webcams for each room, allowing families to monitor loved ones from afar.

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“We’re looking to do virtual visits for people. We’re in the midst of getting that all set up in the next day or two,” noted Marlow. “We some people and companies working with us, so the family member at home will be able to, just like Skype or FaceTime, feel like they’re with their loved one, although they’re not. They’ll be able to communicate, or even if they want to check in.”

Marlow says families will be notified when their family member is nearing death, so they can say their goodbyes.

“Our nurses will contact the family and suggest that they come in. We have a buzzer system at the door where they’ll be able to come in,” she said. “The family, two at a time, can come in and be at the bedside.”

At the end of the day, Marlow wants local families to know frontline workers are still providing great care to patients.

But hospice does need help where the community can provide it during this difficult time. The hospice’s thrift store Flutter Buys at the Brock Shopping Centre, its biggest moneymaker during the year, has shut down. The annual gala, which brought in $160,000 last year, had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

People interested in making a donation can visit the Kamloops hospice website here.