SPRING/SUMMER 2022
CHILDREN AT THE HE RT OF OUR CARE Julia’s House doctors, Dr Martin Hussey and Dr Jo Frost, share why the increasingly complex needs of the children we support require more medical care and a team approach “Julia Perks and I worked together at Poole Hospital and I remember her talking all about setting up the children’s hospice service, so I feel I have been part of Julia’s House from the very start,” says Martin, who joined the hospice in 2020. Jo has worked locally in paediatrics since 2015 and also at a children’s hospice in the past: “I know just what an important role children’s hospices play in the community as part of the wide team of support around seriously ill children and their families.”
seem to take priority. We aim to take some of that medical burden away from families, so they can enjoy their time together.” Martin adds: “We work hard to keep the child at the centre of our care, in increasingly complex circumstances. As the medical team in many ways we are not the most important people here, everyone else is. It’s the whole team that provide care for the whole child, not just meeting their medical needs, but their physical, emotional, psychological and developmental needs too.”
RESPONDING TO GROWING NEEDS
MORE CHOICE
“The children we support have become increasingly complex from a medical point of view; this is reflected nationally too, so we have to respond to these changing and growing needs,” continues Jo. “It is challenging for everyone and especially for parents, who have to be so focused on providing care, that sometimes the medical interventions and equipment
Increasing Jo and Martin’s time at the hospice will also enable Julia’s House to offer families more choice at the end of their child’s life: “Families will be looked after wherever they may be for end of life – in a hospital, at a hospice or at home, but for us it will mean being able to provide more choice if they would like to be at the hospice. We can now make this a possibility
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