Living Well Services

St Wilfrid’s Living Well Services are for people living with any illness which impacts negatively on their life and may shorten it. Family carers can also find it useful to attend these services. The Living Well Centre is designed to give you a place to go where you can focus on learning how to stay independent and keep yourself as well as possible.

Living with illness can be hard. There are different ways to manage illness. Some find it helps to talk with those with similar problems, learning together how to manage. Many find staying active through exercise and other activity helps. Having fun with others can also take your mind from your illness.

It is all about enabling you to enjoy life –understand yourself better, connect with other people and feel the benefit of kindness, friendship, support and having a good laugh. We have a team of therapists including a chaplain, nurses, doctors and health care assistants who provide a range of group and individual therapies for people living with long-term conditions that impact on their lives. The team are skilled at adapting therapeutic techniques and approaches to meet the needs of individuals.

Once you are referred to us, we will work with you to identify your needs and find the part of the service that works best for you.

Some of the types of Support available

Art Therapy: Sometimes it can be hard to talk about difficulties and feelings, so art therapy can allow people to express these in a safe environment, using art instead of spoken words.

Creative Café: Join us for a session of craft and chat, refreshments and support. Exercise sessions: support to help you to make the most your physical wellbeing Complementary therapy: these sessions aim to provide holistic and supportive alternative therapies to help ease the symptoms of stress and anxiety, improving sleep and general comfort such as aromatherapy, massage or Reiki.

Future Planning: A chance to talk about important things at the end of life such as planning wills and funerals, how do I start difficult conversations and my future preferences.

Breathe Easy course: Fatigue and breathlessness are common problems. This course helps to equip those attending with the understanding and tools to manage these difficult symptoms.

Alternatively, simply come along for a cuppa and some company. Sometimes it is good to have a change of scenery and talk to others in the same situation.

Some of our services may also be available to you in your own home and we also have podcasts and videos available.

Rehabilitation Team

Our specialist physiotherapists and occupational therapists will help you to remain active for as long as possible during your illness, enabling you to remain independent, in control of your symptoms and able to adapt to potential changes in your condition.

A physiotherapist can play an important role in helping you to manage your condition through a number of means, including:

Assessment of mobility and balance, enabling you to move safely and independently indoors and outdoors

Tailored exercise programmes to help you improve or maintain strength, endurance, mobility and balance

Education on techniques to help you manage breathlessness and the associated anxiety that you may experience

Advice on preventing falls

Providing walking aids such as sticks, walking frames, wheelchairs

Managing your pain

Offering a range of techniques that help you to support yourself

“Like most families facing terminal illness we were a little apprehensive about coming to a hospice as we thought it was somewhere you only came to die. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Within 3 days we witnessed a huge change in Sally. With her pain and mobility being properly managed she had a quality of life we hadn’t experienced in months. All the nurses really took the time to get to know us.”

Sammie

The occupational therapist can find practical solutions to everyday situations and problems that are important to you. They can help adapt, advise on or provide equipment for anything from personal care and domestic activities to managing breathlessness and relaxation techniques.

The team will work alongside you to help you maintain your quality of life for as long as possible.

Complementary Therapy

The well-being of the whole person (mind, body and soul) is important when trying to cope with a long-term condition, subsequent treatments and the progression of a disease. Caring for or losing a loved one in this situation can also be overwhelming on every level.

The complementary therapy service has a holistic and supportive role in looking after the individual, helping to ease the symptoms of stress and anxiety, improving your sleep and general comfort.

It can be safely used alongside conventional medicine and is not offered as an alternative treatment for disease, but for the purpose of support and relaxation only. Complementary therapies are widely used in palliative and end of life care and with an experienced therapist are safe, enjoyable and beneficial to those with a cancer diagnosis as well as other long-term conditions. Your therapist will assess your needs individually and adapt what they do to suit you. We have a variety of therapies that can be offered so please ask which ones are available and what they can do to help.

If you have any concerns about the session, please ask a therapist at the Hospice or call 01243 775302 and speak to the Complementary Therapy Coordinator.