Nova Scotia’s Dharamshala bed deficiency leaves dozens of dignified death waiting

For workers in Dharamshala Halifax, meditation is on a personal journey at rest, dignity and end of life.

But care is out of access to many people in Nova Scotia, where a serious deficiency of special Dharamshala beds means that a peaceful death is a privilege, not a guarantee.

Claire Prasad, nurse manager at Dharamshala, underlines the important requirement for more special end-life care.

Prasad says it should be Seven Dharamshala beds for every 100,000 peopleBut Nova Scotia is not at that level.

All provinces have only 30 Dharamshala beds – 10 in Halifax, 10 in Annapolis Valley and 10 in Cape Breton.

To meet the accepted standards, Nova Scotia needs up to 80 beds, she says. The Halifax Regional Municipality will require up to 30.

Prasad says that it leaves Dharamshala with difficult tasks to hit 10 beds in which around 30 to 35 people are waiting for care at any time.

She says that the process is going to break the heart.

“For every person we can take, two are removed,” she says.

A statement from the Department of Health and Welfare states that it is reviewing Dharamshala care across the province.

The statement stated that it involves hiring a medical director to oversee the phased expansion of services at the fisherman’s Memorial Hospital in Lunenberg with five new Dharamshala beds, stating in the statement.

Asked about the lack of this week, Health Minister Mitchell Thompson said that the province also offers 40 single soluble care beds as an alternative.

He said that life care can be distributed in many ways, including hospitals, long -term care or community settings.

“We know that there are reforms that need to be made, and we will continue working on the issue,” Thompson said.

But Prasad’s experience indicates a difference between other subcutaneous settings and special Dharamshala models.

She said she collaborated with community nurses and hospital units to assess the needs to prevent deaths in emergency rooms or ambulances.

Prasad says that Hospital Care provides a home -like setting, unlike a hospital subcutaneous care unit located in an institution.

She says that a small team of 14 regular employees is trained in attendance and listening.

They support each other through reflective briefing and memory books that record the stories of each patient that have died.

“This is a type of switch in perspective,” says Prasad. “Instead of looking at the cure, you are looking at the comfort, which is still equally powerful which is part of it.”

Dharamshala began as a grassroots level effort, which is growing with community assistance and charity, but it still requires government funds to operate, Prashad says.

She wants public members to write to their MLA and focus on the need for Dharamshala services in their community.

“Those who know, know – and we are advocating.”

Valley Hospital

Valley Hospital in Kentville also has 10 patient beds, but works on a separate financial model compared to its Halifax counterpart.

This Valley was built by the Hostil Foundation and is owned and operated by Nova Scotia Health.

Foundation president Gery More says that the only permanent model in the Annapolis Valley was to raise money to erect a building and raise money in early equipment, then handed over it to Nova Scotia Health.

They say that most of the Valley Dharamshala comes from the province. Foundation provides supplements.

Since accepting his first patient in September 2020, morey says demand has steadily increased.

He says that his current occupation is more than 80 percent.

Regarding the patient’s response, he says, “They cannot speak enough about kind and sympathetic care that they are receiving from carers including volunteers.”

Life-changing experience

For those who secure the bed, experience is going to change life.

Dharamshala model provides care that every person meets physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

This may include music therapy, pet trips and fulfilling the last desires.

Social Work Co-ordinator of Hospital Halifax, Ketleen Cantarel, says that each plan is unique and sewn to meet the needs of a patient.

An important benefit is the relief that it brings families, she says.

She says, “Their families become their family instead of playing carer and nurse or a personal support worker or a lawyer or their transport.”

“To be able to be here and just a sister, a mother, a brother, a wife, a friend, a friend, a friend, huge.”