Fact finder

What do you know about hospice care?

• Hospices care for people whose illness is life limiting and will not respond to treatment

  We care for people with symptoms arising from all kinds of illness – not just cancer. The aim of the care is to increase the quality of the patient’s and their family’s lives by treating difficult symptoms and giving social and psychological support.
  
  Hospices normally get involved when this is a difficult or complex challenge; mainstream medical services are normally able to manage the control of symptoms such as pain and nausea without our specialist help – but we are there for when our expertise is needed.
  
  The care can be given at home, through day centres and in hospice buildings

• Hospices help people complete their lives with dignity and peace

  Hospices try to put their patients in the driving seat when agreeing the care that is to be given. For instance, for some people the most important thing will be to remain alert for as long as possible so they can continue to be ‘wife’, ‘husband, ‘mum’, ‘dad’ - or so they can participate in a special occasion. We will try and prescribe medication which enables this to happen. Others will want to be at home as much as possible and we will try and arrange services around home care with perhaps occasional stays in the hospice to sort out symptoms if they become severe.
  
  We try and give our patients in the hospice a lovely and caring environment with sufficient nurses and other staff around to be able to give time to those who want to talk and privacy to those who don’t.

• Hospices meet more than just physical needs

  Hospice care is about more than just solving medical problems such as pain, nausea and breathlessness. The end of life is an important time for resolving family and spiritual dilemmas, and the psychological well-being of our patients and their families is of great importance to us. We employ a psychologist, a chaplain and complementary, music and art therapists who all help to support patient and families to cope - in spite of the circumstances.

• Hospices support families and friends

  We recognise that in the last year of life most of the nursing and care work is done by families and friends - not by healthcare staff. We aim to help family carers manage the impact this has on their lives - financial, emotional and practical. We also recognise that for those close to the patients there will be many difficult feelings to deal with before and after bereavement and we have family support services, including specialist support for children, to guide families through this process.
  
  Our aim is to ensure that families have positive memories of the person who has died, unspoiled by avoidable upset around the time of their death.

• Hospices are full of life

  Many people fear that a hospice must be a gloomy sad place full of distress. In fact our hospice, like all the others, is full of flowers, laughter and love. More than half our patients go home after treatment. They may return several times – or not at all – in the course of their illness. Patients and families often say that they had been fearful of using the service but once they did felt instantly safe, comfortable and supported. They wished they had come earlier.

• Hospice care is free of charge

  Support is provided 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to anyone who needs it and completely free of charge.

• Weldmar Hospicecare Trust is a charity

  As a registered charity, we are accountable to the people of Dorset who support us and we are run by a Board of unpaid Trustees who employ the paid professional clinical and managerial staff who do the day to day work, supported by a large army of volunteers.

• Weldmar Hospicecare Trust is independent of the NHS

  We get a grant from the NHS but over two thirds of the money we spend on patients comes from the generosity of the people of Dorset. This year we need to raise over £4.5million this way from our fundraising, shops and legacies.
  
  Without the sustained help of local people we cannot provide this local service.