The University of British Columbia’s Board of Governors has approved a 15-bed hospice on a campus location, even as some residents of a neighbouring high-rise condominium continue to object to the facility on what they say are cultural grounds.
The approval, at a board of governors’ meeting at UBC’s Okanagan Campus on Wednesday, followed an approval last week by the board’s planning committee.
The $10-million, 15-bed facility, is a joint venture of UBC’s Faculty of Medicine and the Order of St. John and would be operated by Vancouver Coastal Health. It would provide hospice care and also serve as a research and teaching facility.
Order of St. John spokesman Peter Hebb said the chosen site is “is the best place for the Faculty of Medicine’s research and educational activities while providing a badly-needed hospice for the community at large.”
Residents of a neighbouring tower went public with their objections in January, saying they didn’t learn about the hospice until UBC announced an open house that month to discuss the project. The group, consisting mostly of recent immigrants from China and Korea, said their cultural beliefs, including elements of yin and yang and Feng Shui, make it unlucky and unhealthy to live next to a hospice.
In response to those objections, UBC put planning on hold to allow more time for consultation, which included studies on issues such as traffic impacts, property values and noise from nearby Thunderbird Stadium. UBC says it also worked with Vancouver-based immigrant services agency Success to address residents’ concerns relating to cultural values.
Residents who object to the hospice on June 6 wrote to UBC president Stephen Toope requesting a formal review of the process, noting that UBC had ruled out a previous site after students objected. UBC says it has reviewed more than 15 sites for the facility.
The residents say they do not object to a hospice, but to its location next to their building – and maintain that anxiety about living next to the hospice has resulted in stress and illness for them and their children.
A May UBC staff report that recommended approval of the facility also recommended that UBC plant trees to screen the hospice, continue to provide outreach services to new Canadians living on campus and work with the university’s property division to “identify other housing opportunities on campus for residents of the adjacent building who wish to move.”
The hospice has also generated petitions and letters of support from area residents.
Only about two or three of every 10 Canadians who die each year have access to hospice care, according to estimates from the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association.
