Maison du Père: Palliative Care so no one is Forgotten.
Interview with François Boissy, President and CEO of the Maison du Père
Mr. Boissy, tell me a little bit about the Maison du Père.
The Maison du Père been located in Montreal for 50 years. It has provided refuge for homeless men for fifty years. It offers more than 1000 hot meals per day, clothing and hygiene services to give them some semblance of human care.
Our mission goes beyond a lodging service. We provide support to get them out of homelessness through reintegration and social support programmes. In normal times (pre-COVID), the Maison du Père provides emergency accommodation to 194 people, and encourages social reintegration. It has had to reduce the number of beds to 96 due to the pandemic. Through emergency accommodation, we are involved in beds at the Royal Victoria Hospital for people waiting for a test result for COVID-19. For many homeless men, the Maison du Père is an anchor, a safe place where people can regain their dignity. It also provides housing and personalized support for nearly 200 other homeless people.
Many homeless people experience a form of premature aging. To meet their special needs, they are offered a place in an accredited senior’s residence. Thus, the residence for seniors J.A. DeSève opened its doors in 1988 for people aged 55+. At a low cost, it allows some 87 seniors who can no longer stay alone to benefit from long-term accommodation in a private room. The majority of residents suffer from mental illness (70%) or a chronic illness (83%) and do not have a family or a social network to support them. Our staff provides financial advice and administrative services (income tax returns, will preparation, funeral pre-arrangements) for a dignified end of life.
With our 113 regular employees and more than 125 volunteers, we offer shelter and comfort but above all, psychosocial follow-up for recovery. The pandemic has had an impact on the number of our volunteers. We lost 75% of our volunteers because of their age or health. The Maison du Père is recruiting staff and volunteers. Despite the pandemic, the safety and health of our clients is at the heart of our work. For example, we deployed a COVID-19 screening clinic to our site.
In a nutshell, what services do you offer your clientele?
On a daily basis, we welcome about 225 people. Over the course of a year, we help more than 1,550 different people who represent as many individualized complications. More than a refuge, we are a referral center. With our accommodation support services, we follow up outside the of Maison du Père in search for housing and jobs. We follow about 250 people on a long-term basis.
Argon is the first service dog to work for the well-being of homeless people. The Mira Foundation is responsible for funding Argon. This dog defuses crises, comforts men in distress, encourages exchanges between clients and brings many people out of isolation.
There are so many programs to help our people. There is the banking service box so that people can cash their cheque at the beginning of the month. At the civic level, a polling stations for municipal and federal elections as well as tax clinics are important services to maintain rights as citizens. Clinical services, such as vaccination, are made available to homeless people. We are partners with Information et orientation scolaires et professionnelles (SARCA) who supervise them in their journey to facilitate a return to school and the recognition of their achievements. Legal services are provided to help them obtain paid renumeration and obtain ID’s required for access to normal citizen’s services. There are also projects with the police in order to avoid their clients coming into the justice system because of their homelessness.
Returning to work is also part of social reintegration. Maison du Père helps clients prepare their CVs, and prepare for job interviews, etc. They offer advice on finding a job. The ‘Vestiaire’ and hairdressing services are a complement to this approach. To support them financially, the PAAS Action program, in partnership with Employment-Québec, allows beneficiaries to receive a government allowance. Our collaboration with community organizations allows them to gain work experience through one-time contracts.
People who are homeless experience barriers to accessing health services such as maintaining their RAMQ card, keeping medical appointments and adherence to treatment. The Maison du Père’s local healthcare service knows how to deal with these issues. With place for eight people in recovery, we have adapted care to their reality. Our clinical team ensures the health check-ups of all participants in the reintegration program and coordinates their referral to the appropriate resources. Having a detailed knowledge of the needs of this clientele, the Maison du Père offers personalized support. All stakeholders need to be flexible in responding to substance abuse and mental health issues.
Speaking of healthcare, how did palliative care develop at the Maison du Père?
The origin of the project arose in response to the testimonies of our residents. In discussing their journey, we realized that the accompaniment of these men ended abruptly during their hospitalization for palliative care. At the end of their lives, they were hospitalized and cut off from the support network we provided to them. Some men even refused hospitalization preferring to remain in their familiar milieu and not die alone in hospital. We have volunteers who follow our clients at the hospital but this was not enough.
Inspired by existing hospices, we built this project in collaboration with community partners: the Palliative Care Society of Greater Montreal and the oncology department of the The Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM). With the latter, we have conversations to facilitate hospital discharge to our two palliative care rooms.
In addition to our clinical staff, we have volunteers trained in palliative and end-of-life care. Our staff focuses on managing symptoms but also reconnecting with family members. Among our first stories, a volunteer sat down with a client and asked him for information about his family. She then researched and organized virtual meetings. These accompaniments have been very touching for the person at the end of life, as well as his family and the staff.
Since the majority of the men we accompany lack family or a helpful social network, the Maison du Père sees to funeral arrangements. Over the course of a year, the Trinitarians celebrate nearly 35 funerals with a ceremony in the chapel. At the Maison du Père, we believe no one should leave forgotten.
For all these reasons, in 2016, we added two palliative care rooms to our services. We offer men the opportunity to stay as long as possible in their own environment, with the people they love, so that they can die with dignity, just like all Canadians.
Thank you for your time. One last word to conclude?
We encourage people to donate their time or make a donation. Homelessness in Montreal is everyone's business. When you donate to the Maison du Père, you are helping a supportive community that is in the heart of the city. Thank you for supporting us in our mission to help men who are homeless. We are the social safety net for so many men. We are happy to accompany them every day but also at the end of life.
