While the rendering is subject to change, Keaton’s House – Paul Paletta Children’s Hospice will be the ninth facility of its kind in Canada and will include 10 beds and a variety of services, such as day-wellness programs and therapies.Supplied / mcCallumSather
For Danielle Zucchet, Dec. 4, 2010, is a day that’s forever etched in her memory. After three years of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, her seven-year-old son, Keaton, died in her arms after a battle with Stage 4 cancer at McMaster Children’s Hospital.
“Nobody likes to think about a child being sick or a child dying, but it is a reality,” says Ms. Zucchet, chief executive of Kemp Care Network, a palliative care organization in the Greater Hamilton Area that offers grief and bereavement programs, a residential hospice and advanced care planning guidance. “When you think about a family, like ours, who receives this kind of diagnosis, there’s not only the grieving in terms of what their child’s life expectancy is going to be, but it’s also the loss of what you thought your life was going to be like with that child.”
Unlike hospitals, pediatric hospices take a holistic, patient-centric approach that accounts for the physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs of the child and family, from diagnosis until death. While McMaster Children’s Hospital supports 500,000 children across a region of 2.3 million, there’s no children’s hospice or dedicated pediatric palliative care facility to ease the end-of-life journey faced by families – something Ms. Zucchet discovered while navigating her own family’s path.
After Keaton’s death, Ms. Zucchet left her corporate job and made it her mission to learn why there were no palliative care facilities in the Greater Hamilton Area. She now works toward providing more than 1,000 of the region’s families in need with options that Keaton and her family never had.
Thanks to a partnership between Kemp Care Network and McMaster Children’s Hospital, Keaton’s House – Paul Paletta Children’s Hospice, the ninth facility of its kind in Canada, will become a reality when it opens in Dundas, Ont.
“Families faced with a terminal diagnosis for one of their children often say they feel immensely isolated,” Ms. Zucchet says. “With this new hospice, Kemp Care Network is providing the closest thing to being at home without the added burdens – they can walk into the doors and know they can just be a family. They don’t have to be a caregiver.”
Creating a campus of care
After feasibility studies and working with the local government and Greater Hamilton community, Keaton’s House found its home in an established residential community close to the Hamilton-Brantford Rail Trail. It’s located behind Wentworth Lodge, a City of Hamilton-operated long-term care facility, and is not far from the McMaster Children’s Hospital – an essential criteria in choosing the location.
Keaton’s House will cost $25-million to build, with just over half that amount already fundraised through Kemp Care Network’s capital campaign. The Ontario government has pledged $2.5-million for construction costs. Once it opens, the province said it will continue to invest an additional $2.2-million annually in operational funding.
Keaton’s House broke ground in May, 2024. Once operational, the 10-bed children’s hospice will offer a variety of services, including day-wellness programs and therapies such as massage, movement, recreation and music, pediatric end-of-life nursing and personal support, and respite care.
While the rendering is subject to change, the site will feature extensive landscaping to give added privacy, with the design taking inspiration from the tranquil setting and character of the residential community.Supplied/ mcCallumSather
Surrounded by mature trees, the site will feature extensive landscaping to give added privacy, with mcCallumSather designing the facility. The firm is taking inspiration from the tranquil setting and character of the residential community.
“The community has shown a tremendous amount of support for sharing their neighbourhood with this pediatric hospice, which is really important – not just to create an environment that is home-like, but to have it in a home-like environment supported by real families,” says Willems Ransom, principal architect at mcCallumSather.
Nature by design
The design of Keaton’s House is guided by mcCallumSather’s deep commitment to environmental sustainability. That starts with the landscaping, where they’ve incorporated native plant species and bioswales, which collect stormwater runoff, funnel it into the ground and filter out pollution.
“A big driver on this project was not only a desire to enhance the natural beauty of the site, but to also revitalize the local ecosystem,” says William Neal, principal architect at mcCallumSather.
Mounting research shows the therapeutic benefits of daylight access and views of nature when it comes to reducing stress for patients, caregivers and staff. In a 2020 report, nature exposure was found to reduce stress markers, while another study showed daylight access provided significant benefits to patients in health care buildings.
“We also leaned on biophilic principles to try and make this building differ from traditional, acute institutional health care settings,” says Mr. Ransom, describing an architectural approach that leans on humans’ innate connection to nature. “By including extensive landscaping around the facility, we’ve tried to create a holistic kind of campus of care that includes both indoor and outdoor therapeutic and recreational activities.”
Wraparound child care bridges the gap
Families of children facing life-altering diagnoses need broader services than what a traditional hospital provides. For instance, they need privacy, 24/7 respite care, and individual grief and bereavement counselling.
“Even though we received great care at McMaster Children’s Hospital, there wasn’t a lot of extra support and services available for my family,” Ms. Zucchet says. “The beautiful wraparound support system this hospice will provide, especially with its ongoing relationship with the McMaster Children’s Hospital, is going to bridge the gap that currently exists and help future families and children faced with this unimaginable diagnosis.”
Beyond its support for Keaton’s House, the Ontario government is investing $147.4-million over three years to expand palliative care services, including increasing funding by 45 per cent for all hospice beds across the province.
Not a day goes by that Ms. Zucchet doesn’t think about Keaton. However, she’s grateful other families’ journeys will soon be made more comfortable thanks to the community’s incredible support.
“Community support remains essential to bring this life-changing project to fruition,” she says.