This is an open and personal letter to Yukon health care decision makers regarding Wind River Hospice.

I have been reading the letters from two of our prominent doctors and responses about the current state of the Yukon health care system. Now I am tracking back to the transition that just happened a few weeks ago to make new beds available for long-term care clients here in Whitehorse.

So far, I don’t see any real reference to the Wind River Hospice being moved with five days’ notice to a part of the building in Whistle Bend Place that does not have all the necessary tools for end-of-life care. This was part of the shift that happened to create more beds. There were five hospice clients at the time of the move.

My understanding is that this move has made it impossible for some people in the Yukon to come to Wind River Hospice to die. The built-in oxygen units and lift systems were integral to the hospice, and the space was custom-built for patients requiring end-of-life care. This is not a small detail that can be overlooked … but was.

They also lost the private entrance where the families and friends would gather to say goodbye when the body of their loved ones were being taken to the funeral home. This is now done at the public entrance in the main part of the building.

I have already experienced personally an embarrassing moment with someone who was seeing off their loved one, and I didn’t realize it until I saw the funeral home’s white Odyssey parked there. Walking the body out is an important and deeply intimate part of the hospice process.

There is also an impact on family members not being able to visit due to the more institutional setting.

The space in House 3 at Whistle Bend was designed to house mental health patients, and is far from being adjustable to provide quality end-of-life care.

The change has already impacted First Nations families and others with institutional trauma who no longer come to see loved ones because of the environment.

The impact on residents is significant. One example of this is the courtyard, which has a 10- or 11-foot institutional-looking fence enclosing the outside space.

Also, staff are more closed off and distant from residents in the nursing station, and the residents and families feel this separation.

I am in the Whistle Bend Place building two to three times a week to visit my dad on the third floor. He has been there for 2 ½ years, and has progressing dementia. I feel so incredibly fortunate that he is able to be cared for by the skilled and dedicated people who work there.

Twenty-plus months ago, we moved my husband, Morris Lamrock, into Wind River Hospice for what we thought was a respite before he started his cancer treatment again.

He had been experiencing seizures, and I could no longer physically care for him at home. We spent seven weeks of our lives there. As it turned out, it actually was the end of his life.

While there were quite a few people being cared for in the rooms, there was just one other family with kids who were going through a similar experience to us.

They showed us how to be a family and maintain our sanity and dignity while we went through an utterly surprising and heartbreaking experience beside them.

I know what the hospice staff do, their skill and care, exactly how hard and how intimate their jobs are.

I know the importance of the sanctuary they create, the dignity of the large rooms that can allow a spouse to sleep beside their partner, the importance of the built-in lifts that allow for baths, and the silent oxygen systems that don’t fill the space with disturbing and triggering sounds. They were designed and built for Wind River Hospice.

I have lived this experience and have gone to see the facility they were moved to and the impact of the change. I must say that I am pretty appalled that this choice was made and glossed over, made to look like a really good thing happened for everyone.

It wasn’t. It isn’t.

The new space looks nice enough, but everything I listed above is NOT there. Staff and families are having to work that much harder to create a sanctuary for the dying.

This was not the only way to have made more beds available, and it was thrust on most of the staff, patients and families in all the affected locations without consultation about the impacts. Clearly, not enough questions were asked about something that was highly sensitive to those directly involved.

I am deeply curious how this one will work out.

Responsible action is not that hard. I was not a fly on the wall for this decision-making process but I am a taxpaying Yukoner with direct experience with Wind River Hospice and its importance, and I would like to know how this can and will be made right.

I know that the people who are making these decisions are good, decent, hard-working people trying to figure out best solutions. The thing is, it needs to be done in a much more holistic way than government bureaucracy often allows.

We can be wise, intelligent and capable creatures.

Sometimes our systems push us to the lowest common denominator solutions that really don’t help anything but look like they do.

Let’s get this right, together.

Susie Anne Bartsch
Whitehorse