April’s 10th Anniversary Highlight is our community education initiative: Planning for Care in Advance

In the early days of our organization, the New West Hospice Society identified a need to help members of our Compassionate Community in thinking about their futures. As we developed our Compassionate City Crew training program, we needed to include a section on Advance Care Planning.

Knowing that we needed the guidance of seasoned professionals, a partnership was born with Fraser Health and their Advance Care Planning Team. Today, nurses from Fraser Health continue to participate in each training program for our dedicated volunteers.

As we developed the first Dialogue on Death and Dying, we added ACP to the program. It was very well received and we have continued to offer it every year since. In 2025, 38 people participated in thinking about their future care needs.

Planning for Care in Advance is an initiative we still facilitate today where nurses from Fraser Health and volunteers from the NWHS join forces to promote education. Over the years, our volunteers have been meeting with members of our community to guide them through planning for the future care needs.