MISSOULA — Construction on the Partners Hope Foundation’s hospice facility on Missoula’s west side is making significant progress on its way to opening early next year.
Our recent tour of the construction site at the city's new hospice facility showed that a lot has happened since this project first broke ground last June.
The design of this 12-patient facility was deliberate.
There is lots of natural light, comforting colors, private outdoor patios, native plant gardens and spaces for families to gather and children to play.
The center has been designed to support people's loved ones.
“We want this to be a place where people spend their time together, where family can be family," Partners Hope Foundation executive director Amanda Yeoman Melro told MTN.
"We want to have spaces for children to come, so we have indoor and outdoor spaces for children,” she continued. “And we have some general areas that are for the community as well as the family.”
There will also be multipurpose spaces inside and out for programs about grief and healing.
The facility will be Western Montana’s only center with 24-hour hospice care and is entirely funded by the community and donations.
“The last 20 years, we have been hoping and dreaming. As a community of people who live and work, in end-of-life care we’ve been dreaming of a facility like this,” said Dan Dixson with the Partners Hope Foundation.
The center is expected to serve 3,000 patients in its first five years, and those who will come to the facility will get the opportunity to live the best life they can in the time that is left.
“I always say hospice is about living until you die. It’s not about dying,” Dixson said. “It's a place where you come as a family and you allow them to live until that time comes.”
Partners Hope Foundation is in its final fund-raising push. It’s raised 89% of its goal but there's still $1.7 million to go.
Visit https://www.partnershopefoundation.org/ to learn more about the center and how to make donations.
