St. Joseph Home Opens for Terminally Ill

A new home for terminally ill patients opened its doors today in Belize City. The Belize Palliative Care and Hospice Association inaugurated and blessed St. Joseph Home, a six-bed facility that will provide free care for patients who do not have the resources, family support or medical services they need in their final days. Director Frederico Gianelli explains what the home offers.

 

Frederico Gianelli, Director, Belize Palliative Care & Hospice Association

“Everybody deserve to die in company, die with dignity. You know, it’s a place to restore the person’s dignities. Many sisters and brothers in Belize are dying alone, are dying with, with suffering, with pain, are dying without a place or people to take care of them. So in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with Human Development, in collaboration with NHI, in collaboration with the Society of Jesus and many other people, we are able to take care of those who don’t have the resources. Not just the economical resources, but don’t have a home, don’t have a medical care. First, we see the whole person. We are not just about the, the, the physical. We are about the emotional, the physical, and the spiritual. Palliative care that does not provide spiritual care is not palliative care. It’s a symptom management team. So a core value of palliative care around the world is to provide spiritual care, why? Because at the end of life, the spiritual pain is the one that takes over. And I know I’m talking a little bit of language that is new to you maybe. But it’s something that we know by research that cause more suffering, more use of opioids, and longer hospitalizations. So we take care of the whole person. We also take care of the loved ones.”

 

Hospice to Serve Poorest Patients Free

 

St. Joseph Home grew out of a volunteer effort. It began with volunteers visiting patients in their homes and became a formal palliative care program. Since Jesuit priest and palliative care specialist Frederico Gianelli returned to Belize in 2023, the Association says it has reached more than one hundred patients, set up home-care teams and a pharmacy, and secured a permanent home through a parishioner’s donation. Association Chair Ava Pennil explains who the hospice is for.

 

 Ava Pennil, Chair, Belize Palliative Care & Hospice Association

“The best place to die is at home around your family, getting all your needs met. You could hear your grandchildren, you could hear your children, you could laugh, you could listen to the news, you could hear all the things that you’re familiar to. That’s the best place to die. There are people that don’t get that opportunity and maybe end up in a institution somewhere, in a wa lee out house to the back somewhere. Those are the people that we’re targeting for here. So this is not for anybody. This is for the poorest of the poor that have nowhere. We know that it’s reality in Belize that they dig up a lee shack, they fling the people in there, and feed them every time they remember. Those are the people that we’re targeting. So we have to work with like Ministry of Human Development. We are already working with them, the hospital, so that we make sure that we get the poorest of the poor. It will be free of cost. All their care will be paid for. Everything will be paid for. We have arrangement with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Human Development, and National Health Insurance. We have to build those capacities, University of Belize. We have interns. We have an intern right now. So we intern, nursing students and social work students and, pharmacy students. So this is also will be a teaching institution. It will be an institution where people can come to learn as well. So they’ll volunteer and they’ll learn about the process of life, the process of death, and how to support a person compassionately.”

 

Pennil said the facility is expected to begin accepting patients by January, with a possibility of opening as early as December, once final preparations are completed.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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