Advance Care Planning expo set for April 23 at Grace Centre

Jeff Green | Apr 13, 2022

The Volunteer Hospice and Bereavement program at Southern Frontenac Community Services provides companionship, home visits, and other supports to people in Frontenac County who have been diagnosed with a life limiting or terminal illness.

Aside from providing these services, the staff who run the program applied for a grant from New Horizons for Seniors, a federal granting program, to work on a collaborative effort aimed at helping people throughout the Frontenac region with Advance Care Planning.

“Advance Care Planning includes everything from wills, powers of attorney, instructions for palliative care, and much more,” said Barb Mundell, the Hospice Community Liaison with Southern Frontenac Community Services (SFCS).

Susan Ward-Moser, a member and former Chair of the SFCS Board, was involved in attaining the New Horizons grant, and she said that “everyone, at some point or another, will end up needing to look at Advance Planning, whether they are the child of someone who is aging, or are getting older themselves. We never know what we will be faced with, and it will save a lot of trouble if we have some plans in place, in advance.”

The New Horizons grant enabled SFCS to gather materials to provide to anyone who is looking for information, and to set up groups that met in person, or virtually, to work through some of the issues that people should be prepared for.

The other initiative that has come out of the grant is to pull together individuals and groups to work in a collaborative effort to help individuals and families take steps that will make either the last stages of life, or dealing with estate issues after death, much clearer and easier to handle for everyone involved.

April is Advance Care Planning month in Canada, and the slogan this year is “Life Happens … Be Ready”.

It was that effort that led SFCS to put together the “Community Supports Expo – Your Health and Care”, which will take place on Saturday, April 23 at the Grace Centre, between 11am and 3pm.

Among those who will be on hand to provide information are lawyer Michele Foxton, to talk about wills and power of attorney, representatives from the Sydenham RBC branch, to go over banking issues, and the Investors Group to talk about estate planning. James Reid Funeral Home and Sydenham Pharmasave will be on hand as well. Also, information about Advance Care Planning instructions for end-of-life health care, and instructions for family members, will be available.

Information is also being presented in other ways, thanks to the partnerships that have been fostered with the help of the grant. A presentation by Dr. Kathy Cortes-Miller on Advanced Care Planning, presented by SHCS and Hospice Kingston, took place on April 13 on Zoom, and presentations through the S.A.L.T (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together) have taken place, and a presentation to the Patient Council at Fairmount is upcoming.

“The grant period is coming to an end, but we are hoping that with the partnerships that we have developed we can take this further in the coming months and years,” said Susan Ward-Moser. “Everyone can benefit from this kind of planning.”

For information about the Community Supports Expo, contact Barb Mundell by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 613-376-6477, ext. 201.