About
The Dorothy Ley Hospice was founded over 32 years ago as a volunteer-based community service organization offering compassionate care to individuals living with the challenges of a life-limiting illness or loss as well as offering support for family members and caregivers.
Community Support supports individuals and their loved ones from diagnosis, treatment, pain, and symptom management, to comfort care and bereavement in their homes.
Residential Care is provided to individuals in the last weeks of life. Our ten-bed (soon to be twelve) residential hospice is a home-like environment where we provide 24/7 nursing and medical care to individuals at end of life whose care needs exceed the capacity of the care providers to be managed at home.
Residential care aims to allow death to occur naturally rather than prolong life or hasten death. Care is provided through a transdisciplinary team approach consisting of palliative care physicians, registered nurses (RNs), registered practical nurses (RPNs), personal support workers (PSWs), specially trained volunteers and a nutrition consultant whose primary focus of care is on pain and symptom management and personal care.
Our Impact
16,000 trained volunteers in Hospice at Home programs annually help over 21,000 patients stay home and support the well-being of family caregivers. More than half of family caregivers reported that volunteer support averted a trip to the ER saving the system $10,000,000 in unnecessary ER visits.
– Hospice Palliative Care Ontario
The Dorothy Ley Hospice is the only hospice offering both residential and community support services in Toronto. Our Community Support Program provides care coordination and In-home support to over 2000 individuals annually at NO CHARGE who are diagnosed with a life-limiting illness.
Hospices are the only clinical provider that must fundraise to pay for clinical costs.
The Residence provides 24-hour care in a home-like setting to 200 clients annually. Through our community support program, staff serve nearly 1,500 people. Service is provided by a staff of 34 (full and part-time), 12 palliative care physicians and over 280 volunteers who dedicate more than 23,000 hours each year.