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c2 economist suntribune december 10 1986 bringing comfort hope help coping with terminal illness by edo van belkom a terminal illness is something most people rarely think about until it affects someone close to them such as a relative or neighbor suddenly something that was always thought of as happening to someone else happens to them family and friends are con fronted with dozens of decisions about their care decision made easier one important decision about care being provided in the home or at a hospital will be made easier in the future by hospice- thornhill a new volunteer service offered to the residents of thor- nhill hospicethornhill will provide lay volunteers who will periof m nonmedical duties in the home to assist the dying person to live life as fully as possible and remain at home as long as he or she wishes were not going to duplicate any care already provided by established services such as von victorian order of nurses said joan wilson a founder and member of the hospicethornhill board of directors we have the support from existing agencies and will be provid ing nonmedical help they dont provide volunteers might be doing things like picking up groceries and medicine or just sitting with someone for a while this kind of palliative care is not new but community based service is a recent development in king township hospiceking has been serving the community with great success since 1983 and that agency is passing on the benefit of its experience to hospice- thornhill hospicethornhill has already recruited 15 volunteers who will begin a sixweek one night a week training course that will cover everything from listening nutrition pain control and the spiritual aspect of dying mr phillips said the training is vital for volunteers enabling them to handle the emotional aspects of the patients inevitable death before we put a volunteer in a home setting we train them because they must be able to deal with very emotional situations they must learn the skills to cope with that type of stress she said despite hospicethornhill being a volunteer organization mrs phillips said it will require an initial startup budget of 50000 the money will go toward one fulltime coordinator office space and clerical staff the agency is currently seeking funding as well as more volunteer staff could spread to markham hospicethornhill will of course be serving the area of thor- nhill but according to mrs phillips their service could be ex tended to outlying areas such as markham if their is a great need and enough staff but ultimately she hopes that hospices could be set up in all of the towns in york region for more information about hospicethornhill call joan phil lips at 8897715 evenings or marleene kretchman 8813147 fc we guarantee the lowest possible pri on every it in our store everyday kennedy road m k aann fri o nm i at denison mon fri 9am- 10pm sat 7am 9 pm sun 9amopm hwy 40 7 and liverpool road pickering i mon fri 9 am 10 pm sat 7 am 9 pm sun 9 am 6 pm