No.149 | October 2021
Care where it matters most PLUS
Christmas shopping made easy News and events
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Hello and welcome to your latest edition of Hospice News After so much uncertainty last year, we are so happy to let you know that thanks to your support, we are now in a much stronger position. Your donations made that possible, so thank you. Our priority now is rebuilding our services, and we'll share a more detailed look into both our Hospice at Home and Community Nurse Specialist services in this edition. As a member of the Hospice at Home team, I can tell you first hand that we’ve been able to continue giving first-class care and support to our patients and their families. As we look to the next chapter, thank you for being with us on that journey. I hope you enjoy reading your latest Hospice News.
Contents Hospice Care Week
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Hospice at Home
4-5
Melanie's story
6-7
Rohan's story
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Christmas shopping ideas
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Fundraising news
10-11
Hospice Ambassadors
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Light up a Life Services
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Nigel's story
14-15
Supporting care homes 16-17
Jo Ryan Healthcare Assistant
Puzzle
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A gift for the future
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Enquiries: 0117 915 9400 24/7 Clinical Advice Line: 0117 915 9430 stpetershospice.org 2
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CELEBRATING HOSPICE CARE
National Hospice Care Week 4-8 October 2021
Hospice Care Week is an annual event celebrating hospice care nationwide. It's an opportunity to show the people of Bristol and surrounding area the value of support and care at the end of life, when and where it matters most. This Hospice Care Week coincides with the one-year anniversary of the launch of our ‘When it matters most’ campaign, which was started to highlight the difficulties we faced as a result of the pandemic. Any anniversary is an opportunity for reflection on the past and the future, and this one is no different for us. The past year has shown us that funding for hospice care is vulnerable. As we look to the future, we know there are also big challenges ahead for St Peter’s Hospice and we can’t rest for a moment if we are to meet these. The demand for charity-provided endof-life care is set to increase rapidly. Our population is ageing, meaning even more families will need support through dying, death and bereavement. The NHS will also take time to recover from the impact of Covid-19.
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Towards the end of life, many patients express the wish to die at home, surrounded by the people they love. Our care and support in the community can help achieve this, and we need to increase these services to meet the growing need. Over 90% of our work is already carried out in the community. Our teams offer a range of services from advice and support to practical hands-on nursing care. These teams work hard to help our patients focus on living and making the most of the time they have left. Our patients can access our 24-hour Clinical Advice Line and ask for help at any time. Prompt advice can be helpful in avoiding unnecessary GP or hospital visits – additional pressure on the already vulnerable NHS. This Hospice Care Week, as we pause to reflect, we hope you will stay on this journey with us to grow and protect St Peter’s Hospice care for everyone who will need it, today and in the future.
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New ways of working for the Hospice at Home team Our Hospice at Home team do what it says on the tin: caring for patients and supporting loved ones in the comfort of their own home. They’re there to provide support and care in the last weeks of someone’s life. This year has seen a big shift in the way they work, with a huge expansion in the area they cover and therefore the impact they have. It also means that St Peter’s Hospice is now the leading provider of palliative care in our region. Jonathon, our Hospice at Home Leader, tells us more. ‘Earlier this year the decision was made to merge all end-of-life care providers in our area under the St Peter’s Hospice umbrella together. Previous to this there were four different organisations at work, meaning patients could see numerous different people, uniforms, and ways of working throughout their care journey. Now, we provide care in a patient’s last four weeks of life, working
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alongside District Community Nurses and CHC Care Agencies. We work across a much greater geographical area now, and we’ve increased our workforce as well. Many members of staff came to work for us when the change came into force, and we’ve recruited new Nurses and Healthcare Assistants. Our team has gone from 14 to nearly 50. This expansion has only been made possible by increased funding from the NHS. It’s such a welcome change for us here at the Hospice. It means we can give patients and their loved ones the continuity of care that makes a massive difference when there’s already so much to deal with. It also means that we’re reaching
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Hospice News
even more people. Before we were seeing about five patients a day; now we can see up to 25. Even more people are receiving our gold-level standard of care in their homes. The team has adapted to this brilliantly. I’m so impressed with their resilience after over a year of navigating often daily changes due to the pandemic. They’ve now stepped up and delivered this new change to our service excellently. The new staff members who have joined us are amazing people and have adjusted to their new environment like fish to water. It’s a new system, so there will continue to be learning opportunities as we go. What’s great about it is that we get to create a service that is best for our patients, and continually optimise that based on what people need from us. Our priority as always is to provide something that works as hard as it can for our patients and their loved ones.’
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Melanie’s story Melanie’s mum Joyce was cared for by our Hospice at Home team in the final week of her illness. Here, Melanie tells us more about that time. ‘From the first minute the Hospice at Home nurse came to visit me at home, I felt at ease and I knew she understood the care my Mother needed in her final days. I had no idea that the Hospice at Home services existed. The GP told us and referred us, and then someone from the Hospice came and explained everything. It was ideal, exactly what we wanted, which was for Mum to be at home.
more about how she was feeling, as she viewed them as professionals.
I had never seen anyone die let alone someone as close to me as my mother, and having lived together for over six years we had become so very close. I was determined to respect her wish to die at home but really had no idea what that would entail. I was so fortunate to have had the support of the Hospice at Home team. Every nurse and carer looked after both Mum and me, and I can’t thank them enough for being there when I needed them the most.
It was a beautiful set up at home. The nurses just slotted in. They were like old friends, even the ones who only visited a couple of times. They were completely professional but so natural. It never felt like an intrusion having them there. They not only supported Mum but me as well.
I never felt undermined or unincluded with the treatment Mum needed and I was able to keep Mum in the hub of our home 24/7. She told the nurses much
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Six out of seven of the nights Mum was bed bound, I was also able to sleep as well as possible as I knew Mum was accompanied the whole night. It was so lovely to have kind, compassionate, caring ladies surrounding Mum, making sure she had a peaceful, pain-free passing.
I had no idea what was going to happen; it was scary but there was always someone there to tell me what to expect, and that what’s happening is normal. I will be forever grateful for the help and kindness shown to me and my family by the Hospice at Home team.’
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‘The nurses just slotted in. They were like old friends.’ Melanie
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A gift for the future Gifts in wills are, and always have been, vital to our work. In fact, they pay for the entire care costs of almost one out of every four local people who need our support. The impact of gifts left by generous supporters in their wills can be felt by everyone throughout the Hospice. From patients being cared for at our Inpatient Unit, to our many patients receiving nursing care
at home, our doctors, nurses, drivers, cleaners, kitchen staff and receptionists: all of us are thankful for the generous gifts left by our supporters in their wills. Mr E very kindly left a gift of £66,000 to St Peter’s Hospice. Here’s how his generosity delivered – and is still delivering – vital care to local people.
£32,217 £1,766 paid for art supplies and a whole new set of aromatherapy oils for our Therapy Team to use.
funded our whole Inpatient Unit for three days last year.
£13,361 paid for 69 specialist home care visits to local people delivered by our Community Nurses.
£2,005 helped patients and loved ones struggling with their situation to have extra support through our Emotional & Psychological Support team.
£6,961 allowed for four local people to have dedicated end-of-life care through our Hospice at Home team.
Mr E’s gift of
£66,000
to St Peter’s Hospice.
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£4,303
£2,831 practical support; helping patients to access other care services and our Patient & Family Services team.
£2,556 paid for soothing treatments and therapies for our Day Services patients.
funded our Access Team who introduce Hospice services to new patients and manage our 24 Hour Clinical Advice Line.
If you would like to find out more about leaving a gift in your will to St Peter’s please contact Becky at legacy@stpetershospice.org to be sent a no commitment guide to charity giving in wills.
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Give more and spend less this Christmas Shopping with us both online and in store is the best way to save money, give back to the community and pick up some great Christmas gifts all at the same time. Our online Christmas shop is home to a whole range of Christmas accessories that you won’t want to miss, as well as a huge selection of Christmas cards. Be sure to check out our exclusive Bristol cards that show our city in its winter beauty at stpetershospice. org/christmascards. In store, you'll find brand new Christmas decorations and gifts for all the family, along with all of our usual pre-loved goodies. A full list of all of our shops and their addresses is available on our website: stpetershospice.org/shops
Visit your local store to see what you can find inside for Christmas. Follow us
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Events We were delighted to bring our events back safely this summer, and get back to cheering on our wonderful supporters. The Tour de Bristol returned with a twoday, socially-distanced event that saw over 600 cyclists ride through the local countryside, over the Severn Bridge and into the stunning Wye Valley. Teams of all sizes came together to tackle the routes, and the excitement to be back was clear from start to finish!
We’re thrilled that these two events together have raised over £140,000 for the Hospice at a time when it’s needed most. We’re really grateful to everyone who took part or made them possible; special thanks to the team at Castlemead and the Tour de Bristol event sponsors, Total Produce.
One of our supporters, Verity, completed not just one but both days of the Tour de Bristol, cycling together with her dad Malcolm. The ride was the same day as the 11th anniversary of her mum Jenny passing away at the Hospice, which made the ride even more special. By fundraising through her work at Screwfix, the team raised a wonderful total in Jenny’s name. In July, over 100 brave fundraisers descended a dizzying 262 feet when they took on a thrilling new task: abseil Bristol’s tallest skyscraper! Looking up from below, it was breathtaking how high the Castlemead building stood. Kara, Linda, Rita and Sue from Vibrocise Studios took on the challenge as they’ve had family and close friends supported by the Hospice. Despite admitting being petrified of heights, they all stepped over the edge and sang all the way down, together raising over £2000.
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Hospice heroes Over the last six months we have supported lots of inspirational fundraisers in our community raising money for the Hospice. These are just a handful: Jack Heywood ran the Bath Two Tunnels Marathon, raising £2,700 in memory of his wife Tamara, who was supported by us in her final months.
Iain and Matt became our first ever paddleboard fundraisers, taking on an epic challenge of paddleboarding from Bristol to London… and back! They crossed 248 locks and covered 40km a day, raising £2,300 in memory of Iain’s mum, Caroline. Thank you to everyone who continues to support the Hospice when and where it matters most.
Jake and Hewie, aged 9, cycled 26 miles around Bristol in memory of Jake’s dad Richard. They raised an amazing £2,250 making them true Hospice Heroes!
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Become a Hospice Ambassador Many of you already act as informal ambassadors for the Hospice, organising fundraisers, attending events and posting on social media about the Hospice and we can’t thank you enough! Adrian is one of our first official ambassadors and here he shares why and how he is taking part. Why have you volunteered to be an Ambassador? St Peter’s Hospice supported my sister Linda during her final days in February 2019 and previously had supported my Uncle Ken. My family have been truly grateful and this brought awareness of the work and fantastic support the Hospice provides and the funding required. We did some fundraising in the past. I recently saw that the Hospice was looking for volunteers to act as Ambassadors to help raise awareness. It seemed like a flexible way for me to volunteer in my own time and continue supporting a charity I am passionate about. How have you decided to offer your skills, interests and networks to this volunteering role? I have a strong professional network through the organisation I’ve worked at for over 30 years, so it’s easy for me
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to share relevant information about upcoming events my colleagues may want to get involved in. I can also be proactive in my local community of Bradley Stoke, sharing information and updates about the Hospice where appropriate using social media. Would you encourage others to volunteer as an Ambassador as well? It’s a great way to volunteer if you don’t have the capacity to commit to a regular schedule. I can simply create a couple posts on social media or share the Hospice’s social posts and know that I’m helping. It only takes a couple of minutes. There are all kinds of ways people who could use their connections, skills and talents as an Ambassador for the Hospice. I’d encourage anyone who appreciates St Peter’s Hospice to get involved. If you’d like to learn more about the St Peter’s Hospice Ambassador Programme, visit www.stpetershospice. org.uk/ambassador
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Light up a Life Services 2021
Hospice News
St Peter’s Hospice is inviting all supporters to come together and be part of a special Light up a Life remembrance event. This year we are reflecting on the theme of ‘gratitude’, as we express thanks to our supporters whilst remembering loved ones that are no longer with us. Light up a Life aims to provide everyone with that chance to remember, whether your loved one was cared for here at St Peter’s Hospice or elsewhere. Light up a Life is for everyone who wishes to remember someone in this way.
Remembrance Services Sunday 5th December 5pm – Salvation Army, Staple Hill Monday 6th December 6pm – St Mary’s, Stoke Bishop Thursday 9th December 7pm – online service Please visit our website for more information.
The Book of Remembrance Commemorate your loved ones in our beautiful, hand-bound Book of Remembrance. Your loved one's name will be inscribed by a calligrapher into the book – a wonderful way to remember them. The book is then available for private viewing at the Hospice in December. To add your loved one's name please visit stpetershospice.org/donate
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Nigel’s story When 73-year-old Nigel from central Bristol was diagnosed with cancer in November, his number-one priority was seeing his daughter one more time. With the pandemic in full force, and Nigel’s daughter living in California, it wasn’t going to be easy. This is where we were able to step in and help. ‘Leading up to my diagnosis I had pains in my leg. A friend took me to the doctor for some tests and an ambulance was called immediately. They said if I’d waited one more day I wouldn’t have made it. Following a scan, I was given the news that I had advanced bowel cancer that had spread to my liver and my lungs. I was given three to six months to live. The Hospice came on board immediately, and I told them about my daughter. There was a lot of paperwork involved that they helped me with, including an emergency to travel letter. Due to the rules around isolation, we had just three precious days together. It was the first time we’d seen each other in two years. It was very emotional to be together: we got all of the old photos out and reminisced about the past.
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That wasn’t the only thing the Hospice helped with. Jeanette from the Social Work team came round to see me and we went through everything together. Thanks to her, I was able to access benefits which meant I could do things like get a cleaner, and get a taxi to the supermarket – things that had become impossible for me to do on my own. Without Jeanette, I wouldn’t have known I was entitled to the help. The Community Nurse and Occupational Health teams helped me loads too. Sam found loads of practical ways to help me, like tips for getting in and out of the bath, and having extra banisters installed. The Hospice have been phenomenal. I find it staggering what they do. It’s for this reason that I’ve decided to leave all of my possessions to the Hospice in my will. I know that they’ve had a tough time this past year or so, and this is my way of being able to help’.
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‘The Hospice pulled out every stop imaginable’ Nigel
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Our end-of-life care work in Nursing Homes By Jane Tyson, Community Team Leader The role of a Community Nurse Specialist (CNS) is a varied one and we find ourselves in many different environments. As well as people’s homes, we will frequently also visit nursing and residential care homes. Here, as with all the places we visit, we support patients and their families with symptom control, advice, and emotional support. In these environments a large part of our role is to support and informally educate care staff, and advise and liaise with other healthcare professionals. It’s perhaps a common misconception that the Hospice is the best or only place to be cared for or to die, or that CNSs are the only ones who can have discussions around planning for dying. Complex symptom control and end-of-life care is often skilfully managed by nursing and care teams in homes, with our support. Where necessary our consultants can do joint visits with the CNS team or GPs so that patients can remain in their care home and not be subject to unnecessary moves. Our 24-hour Clinical Advice Line and CNS Administrators play an
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important role in offering complete and timely access to our Community Nurses and specialist palliative advice. Things have changed significantly during the pandemic, as all the care homes have had to be so very careful in protecting their clients. We’re all vaccinated where possible and regularly tested, but in order to help protect this particularly vulnerable patient group, we’re tested again before entering a care home. This has affected our ability to visit as often as we were, and much of our work has had to switch to either phone or video call. It’s not just us this affects, but also the families of our patients who cannot visit as frequently as they would like. Much of our role is to support them and again, of late, this has had to be by phone. With an ageing population and increasing limitations upon resources, we anticipate that our skills as CNSs will continue to be used by nursing and residential care homes. We look forward to continuing this close partnership working.
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Things have changed significantly during the pandemic, as all the care homes have had to be so very careful in protecting their clients.
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Take a break... ... with our trees word search Find the 34 trees to the right – they appear horizontally forwards & backwards, vertically up and down, and diagonally.
Have fun!
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Cedar Magnolia Laurel Rowan Judas Fir Hazel Goat Willow Box Maple Walnut Ash Cacao Copper Beech Gum Cherry Mango Elm Poplar Crab Apple Palm Oleander Elderberry Aloe Yew Silver Birch Coco Lime Pine Pear Juniper Horse Chestnut Fig
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EvEry timE you shop, donate, volunteer and fundraise it mattErs.
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