Alberta has reorganized its health system. Instead of one health authority (AHS), four provincial agencies now each oversee a different part of our care:

• Acute Care Alberta: hospitals and surgical care.

• Primary Care Alberta: family doctors, clinics, community and preventative care

• Recovery Alberta: mental health and addiction care.

• Assisted Living Alberta: continuing care homes (type A and B), home care and community care, including hospice (type C).

Assisted Living Alberta began operating in fall 2025. Publicly funded hospice spaces in Alberta are provided by contracted operators, and decisions about those arrangements and who can access a hospice space now sits with Assisted Living Alberta.

Yes, Alberta’s reorganized health system affects every hospice in Alberta, not just ours.

• Relationships and agreements that hospices built with Alberta Health Services over many years must now be re-established with a new agency, new leaders, and new decisionmakers. Two recent developments: 1) Deloitte Canada has prepared a comprehensive assessment of Assisted Living Alberta’s future government budget requirements and opportunities for both for-profit and not-for-profit operators. 2) the Alberta Continuing Care Association, whom we are a member, has agreed to advocate to Assisted Living Alberta for increased recognition of the uniqueness of Type C facilities within the new ALA landscape.

• Palliative care now crosses all four new health agencies, instead of one. A patient may move from a family doctor, to hospital, to home care, to hospice once a life-ending diagnosis is made. Quality and comprehensive hospice palliative care now involves transitions and coordination across several pillars instead of one in Alberta Health Services. This approach has presented some unexpected challenges.

• Decisions about new hospice spaces (beds spaces per 100,000 people) are being made within a structure that is still taking shape. For example, recent proposed formation of “corridors” reflecting actual patient flow within a geographical area will similarly require patience during its evolution.

• About four in five of Alberta’s hospice beds are in Edmonton and Calgary, and rural municipalities across the province have called on the government to create a sustainable funding model for rural palliative care so that patients might remain near family and within their own communities at end-of-life. Adequate funding of care, grief and bereavement programs, and added flexibility designed to adapt to changing rural population needs was requested. Read the RMA Report here: https://rmalberta.com/reports-toolkits/end-of-life-care-in-rural-alberta-the-case-for-a-sustainable-community-hospice-funding-model/ (2024).

We are working alongside other hospice societies and our partners to make sure rural communities have a strong voice as the new system takes shape. We are carefully considering the opportunities and the challenges that come with these changes. Our Wheatland community is unique and very special to us, and we want our contribution to end-of-life to reflect that – wit care, compassion, and a deep commitment to you and your family.

• WAHS continues to make the case for community not-for-profit residential hospice care. Our goal remains a residential hospice at Kinsmen Park.

• Assisted Living Alberta’s funding decision for hospice spaces in our area have been set for the near term with a separate private organization, so new provincial funding for our community residential hospice is unlikely in the immediate future. WAHS has been actively exploring partnership options that may be available in the future. In every one of these discussions, protecting the funds our community has donated and making sure they are used only for our charitable mission and vision is paramount. Hospice palliative care is a distinct discipline, and if a partnership can meet this bar, we will seriously pursue it.

• We welcome more hospice care services and spaces in Wheatland County, whomever provides it. As our health system evolves, we accept that both for-profit and not-for-profit systems will exist in Wheatland County. To date, our concern remains that for-profit services might not provide the breadth of hospice palliative care provided elsewhere in Canada (physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological services to both patients and families).

In 2027 we hope to launch a Wheatland Palliative Hub - providing a home base location in Strathmore. Functioning much like a bridge, our hub will bring compassionate care and services to patients, family, and caregivers wherever they are: at home, in hospital, in long-term care, or in a lodge. It will also be a standard on which to model a future residential hospice. A Hub could be located at our Kinsmen Park location, or alternatively, in an appropriately zoned space in Strathmore.

Here is what the Hub will bring, and the goals we are settling for (2027):

• One call for help. A palliative navigator who helps families understand their options, coordinate with home care, their doctor, and the hospital, and helps them access benefits and equipment. Goal: every family referred to us is contacted within two business days.

• Home equipment when it is needed. A free lending program for home comfort and safety equipment, such as hospital beds, commodes, and bath aids so families are not left waiting or paying out of pocket. Goal: equipment delivered within 2 days of a request.

• Comfort in local care settings. Investments such as palliative beds in the Strathmore Hospital and sleep chairs for families in LTC facilities so people who cannot be at home still have privacy, comfort, and space for their families at end-of-life. Goal: equipment delivered to Wheatland Lodge, Strathmore Hospital and Sagewood LTC by Spring 2027.

• Support for local care partners. Funding support to local community agencies to assist in fulfilling unexpected care and compassionate needs for own end-of-life clients during the current transitioning of Assisted Living Alberta system. Goal: assisting with expenses to Strathmore FCSS (KARES) and Strathmore Legion Poppy Fund) by Spring 2027.

• Grief Support for anyone who needs it. Grief groups and one-to-one grief companioning, open to anyone in our area, with check-ins for every family we have supported for up to a year after their loss. Goal: Recovery Alberta and FCSS partnerships by Spring 2027.

• A compassionate, well-trained volunteer team. Engaged, high caliber volunteers that continue to deliver companionship, bedside respite, Tech+Care, and No One Dies Alone vigils at our local hospital and senior’s’ facilities, and in patient’s homes. Goal: provide monthly education and support meetings (10).

• Palliative training for local care teams. CHPCA Pallium education day for nurses, licenced practical nurses, and health care aides from hospital, long-term care, and lodge facilities in Strathmore. Goal: Spring 2027.

• Day hospice space for patients and caregivers. Provide a dedicated, secure, accessible, and non-medical space for patients and caregivers for both drop-in and scheduled activities. Recreation therapy, musical performances and therapy, caregiver education and workshops are anticipated. Future service partners such as social work and therapists are likely. Goal: Evaluation of hub location and rollout by Fall 2027.

Behind all this, we will carefully steward our financial reserves, which remain dedicated to hospice palliative care in our community. We will report our progress on each of these above goals in our annual reports and on this FAQ page regularly.

Our Hospice Hub does not replace plans for a residential hospice. It moves them forward.

While we continue working toward a residential hospice at Kinsmen Park, we will:

• Hold the Kinsmen Park site and our partnership with WHMB in place and keep our building plans current and ready to go. A Hub, wherever it is located, will be the first step of many.

• Continue making the case to Assisted Living Alberta and our elected officials for sustainable operating funding for community residential hospice care, alongside other hospice societies facing the same challenge.

• Continue our discussions with private companies about working together as long as any arrangement meets our standards of care and protect the funds our community has donated.

• Use the Hub to build what a hospice needs to succeed: trained volunteers, skilled local care teams, strong partnerships, and a track record of care that funders can see.

Since a rural residential hospice was envisioned by members of the Cheadle Lions Club over ten years ago, much has changed. Two pieces now need to be in place: 1) licensing and sustainable provincial funding to staff and operate hospice spaces and 2) capital funding for the WHMB portion (municipal, provincial, and federal sources) of the shared Kinsmen Park building. As the landscape continues to shift, and we must remain adaptable. WAHS’s is moving forward step by step.

All your donations received by WAHS remain dedicated to hospice palliative care in our community.

Our goal is high-quality, accessible hospice palliative care for our families, neighbours, and co-workers. That is why we encourage government, donors, and care providers to measure success by more than construction costs or the number of spaces created.

For us, success will be measured by:

• Real progress toward construction of a residential hospice.

• Long term sustainability of our palliative care programs and hospice hub location.

• Improved quality of life indicators for patients and families following a palliative diagnosis, and the provision of exceptional end-of-life care.

• A strong, well- supported local workforce and volunteer team, each with a healthy organizational culture.