Annual Holiday Campaign
Goal $60,000
Our Annual Holiday campaign is our largest fundraiser of the year. 100% of all donations stay in our geo area of Campbell River. Because there is no event with this campaign, expenses are extremely low. All donations go towards ensuring our programs are available at no cost.
The truth is that the impact of traumatic loss has reached crisis levels in our community resulting in a substantial number of people struggling with the effects of traumatic grief.
In the past year alone, CRHS has encountered an overwhelming 81% increase in requests for support from those impacted by sudden traumatic losses related to suicide, drug overdose and unexpected deaths. These individuals and families range from children to adults.
Complicated traumatic grief is a mental health crisis that can evolve into severe complications if not treated promptly by professionals specializing in this type of grief.
Statistics show that a child or youth who experiences suicide within their family unit has a 50% chance of considering suicide themselves. This is a tragic risk for our community and is something we take very seriously.
With adequate funding, we can prevent further losses by increasing our counselling services - so everyone has access to the professional help they need and deserve without being placed on a waitlist.
Our grief and end-of-life services are offered to our community at no cost.
Grief is a big part of our community's current needs; however, we recently expanded our end-of-life services through local partnerships with Island Health and Evergreen Seniors Home. Through an innovative approach, we found solutions to expand our services at all locations in the community, including private homes, the hospital, long-term facilities, Yucalta Lodge Hospice Beds and the Hospice Suites at Evergreen. With the considerable increase in requests for grief and end-of-life support, we continually face the need for funding to help expand the capacity of our programs and services.
Lisa's experience exemplifies how your financial support can help people in our community receive our support….......
My journey before I found the support of C.R. Hospice was arduous and gruelling. In February 2020, my husband Glen began a downward spiral of mental illness. Within seven months, he began and ended his significant struggles with mental health, dragging our sons and me along on his horrific path. His suffering ended on October 10, 2020, World Mental Health Day, when he took his life in front of me.
I was ill-equipped and unprepared for Glen's shocking mental health challenges, and after Glen's suicide, I knew the boys and I were in trouble. I knew we needed help processing the horrendous events we'd lived through. Glen went from a kind, considerate family man who loved to laugh and adventure to a fearful, paranoid, delusional man who was terrified the police were after him and petrified they would lock him up forever. Watching Glen slide into psychosis, being unable to find him help, not having a voice and being ignored while witnessing his desperation and suicide was crushing and horrifying. Nothing in my entire life had prepared me for this. It was surreal, nightmarish and incomprehensible. My emotions were as chaotic and alien as what I'd just lived through.
After my experience of trying to support and find help for Glen, I was terrified at the prospect of the daunting task of finding the right counselling to help my sons and myself. Several people, including my doctor, told me Hospice was the best place for grief counselling. I phoned a couple of weeks after Glen's suicide and asked if both my sons and I could receive counselling. The entire process of setting up appointments was easy, compassionate, respectful and caring - vastly different from the frantic, frustrating challenge of trying to get help for Glen. There was no help for Glen; he was not cared for appropriately, nor did he receive treatment in a timely manner. Glen's lack of mental health support is in stark contrast to my family's excellent care and support from Hospice. I believe mental health support on Vancouver Island and in B.C. are inadequate. I can only imagine how barren mental health support would be without the safe harbour of Hospice - I know many more people affected by tragedy would fall through the cracks.
I am so grateful that, as a community, we have these caring, compassionate professionals to walk us through our darkest and most challenging journeys. The walk was not easy – and I strongly fear that without an agile, adaptable, and independent organization like Hospice, the journey would have been far slower and much more painful for my family. Hospice counsellors were adept at quickly identifying my family's needs and ensuring that their response was suited to those needs. Hospice programs fostered our evolution and improvement throughout the various stages of our grief.
The counselling I've received from Hospice has been priceless. It has allowed me to emerge from the nightmare, process events, understand my complex, entangled emotions, and move forward with mental health advocacy and my life. I owe a debt of gratitude to Hospice and the wonderful counsellors who have helped my sons and me. A special thank you Hospice's counsellor, Leslie, who brought me back to myself and helped me find the light, and the sign posts on my suicide grief journey. Hospice has been integral to my family's resilience building through a very bleak and difficult time in our lives.
Although I still have a ways to go, Hospice is helping by giving me the tools to use should I stumble or become lost. I can't thank Hospice enough for all they've done and continue to do for my family.
~Lisa
Donate Today
YOUR IMPACT
$50 will provide 1 Palliative Care Package for a family facing the loss of a loved one
$75 will provide 1 Children's Grief Package to 1 child
$125 will provide grief support programs for 1 person
$500 will provide in -depth professional counselling for 1 person
