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Hospice Association of Kimberley (Saint Teresa’s Hospice)
Home Based Care and In Patient Care
In 1996 the residential facility (also known as St Theresa’s Hospice) opened at its present site in Dutoitspan Road on land donated by Nazareth House and in a building belonging to the Catholic Diocese. The Bishop at the time, Bishop Hecht, raised funds from the Catholic Church in Germany. Today the residential facility has physical capacity for 24 adults and six children. The hospice also runs a very active home-based community care programme, with up to 300 clients being catered for.
As a non-governmental organisation (NGO) the hospice is continually seeking funds to support its work. Due to financial constraints the hospice currently only admits up to 12 adults and six children. Although all home-based community care is provided free of charge by the hospice, a fee is charged for residential clients to help offset some of the running costs. Additional funds are raised through a variety of avenues, including individual donations, corporate donations, fund raising events, bequeathals, and the national Lottery. Annual fund-raising events include the fete in August, the Christmas in July Dinner, and the Tea in May.
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
WHO Definition of Palliative Care for adults:- provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
- affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
- intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
- integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
- offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
- offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement;
- uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
- will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness; is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.
WHO Definition of Palliative Care for Children- Palliative care for children represents a special, albeit closely related field to adult palliative care. WHO’s definition of palliative care appropriate for children and their families is as follows:
- Palliative care for children is the active total care of the child’s body, mind and spirit, and also involves giving support to the family.
- It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease.
- Health providers must evaluate and alleviate a child’s physical, psychological, and social distress.
- Effective palliative care requires a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and makes use of available community resources; it can be successfully implemented even if resources are limited.
- It can be provided in tertiary care facilities, in community health centres and even in children’s homes.
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