A special way of caring
Professor Dame Judith Hill, Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Hospice, outlines the work of the organisation’s adult and children’s hospices and its plans for the future.
The Northern Ireland Hospice is a local charity providing specialist hospice care for people with a terminal illness and their families.
We have been providing adult services for over thirty years. Our in-patient services provide symptom control, respite care and end-of-life care to up to 300 patients each year. The average stay is two to three weeks, and we also provide services to 2,500 people in their own homes. We sensitively offer choice in terms of where people prefer to die. Many prefer to be at home but some prefer not to. We work with four of the five health and social care trusts to provide these community-based services, working closely with GPs and district nurses. We also provide support services for carers and offer care support via our advice line to 300 callers each month.
We also provide hospice services to children. Although the numbers of children are smaller, the intensity and complexity of their care is much greater. This year, we will support 275 families but with resources stretched, there is a need to support 700 families. The majority (95 per cent) of the adults have cancer whereas 98 per cent of the children are dying from other illnesses, either genetic or acquired conditions; many have severe disabilities and their conditions can be very unpredictable. The services for children are nurse-led, linking with local GPs and hospitals, and often specialist hospitals in Great Britain.
Our objective is to “add life to whatever time the patients have left”. We use creative therapies to help bring families together. Some of the responses to the children are some of the most powerful memories families will be left with. It is important to see the child as a child than the condition and it’s important to celebrate the little things.
For our children’s services, government meets 15 to 18 per cent of our costs, which leaves us to raise £2.5 million each year. Adult services are better supported, with government meeting 50 per cent of costs.
Our adult hospice at Somerton House has been in operation for over 25 years and is now in urgent need of redevelopment. Specialist palliative care has also changed considerably over the years, with new clinical practice and standards. We plan to rebuild Somerton House into an 18-bed hospice to provide services for the next 30 years. The project will cost £11 million and we plan to start the first phase of the building work in spring 2013 and complete the project in 2014. Over the life-time of the new hospice, we will care for 10,000 patients, families and friends. The new hospice will provide improved single patient rooms, better facilities for families, a new research and education wing and upgraded facilities.
We also provide education services to other care providers, including nursing homes. The Northern Ireland Hospice is a founding member of the All Ireland institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC), an all-island organisation comprising health agencies, universities and service providers who work collaboratively to improve palliative and end-of-life care on the island through maintaining education standards, research and informing policy.
Northern Ireland Hospice
Head Office
18 O’Neill Road
Newtownabbey, BT36 6WB
www.nihospice.org
