{{ item.categories[0] }}
When people hear hospice, they think the end
“When we first heard the word hospice, we thought it meant the end. What we didn’t realise was how much support ellenor could give us while we were still living our lives.”
A family supported by ellenor.
When people hear the word hospice, they often think of a building and the final days of someone’s life.
But that is not what hospice care looks like for many people.
Across North Kent and Bexley, ellenor supports people living with life-limiting illnesses, wherever they need us. We’re here to help people live as well as they can, for as long as they can, while also supporting the people closest to them.
Around 94% of ellenor’s care is provided in people’s own homes. It can mean helping someone manage pain or breathlessness, offering emotional and practical support, or helping a family understand what is happening.
Last year, ellenor’s teams supported patients more than 57,000 times, through home visits, face-to-face appointments, telephone calls, group sessions and virtual support.
For many people, hospice care starts much earlier than they might expect. Palliative care can begin from the point of diagnosis of a serious illness and can be provided alongside other treatment.
The figures tell an important story. When patients were assessed by ellenor last year, 51% were considered stable while 40% were deteriorating and 6% were in the dying phase.
People’s needs can also change over time. Someone may receive different kinds of support as their illness progresses, from ellenor’s specialist palliative care to emotional and practical support, family and bereavement support, therapeutic services and end-of-life care. For children and young people, ellenor also provides day respite care in the Bexley area.
And hospice care is not just about the person who is ill.
Families may need help caring for someone at home, understanding what is happening or coping with the changes that a life limiting illness can bring. ellenor’s teams are there for them too.
“Hospice care is for everyone, but people come to us from all sorts of backgrounds and they don’t all have the same needs. Culture, faith, family and where people live can all make a difference to the care people want and the support they feel comfortable asking for. That’s why our partnerships with local communities, faith groups and other health and care organisations are so important. We need to make sure people know we’re here, understand what we can offer and feel confident that our services are for them.” – Dr Steve Beaumont, Director of Quality and Care.
Our teams work alongside GPs, nurses, hospital teams and other healthcare professionals, sharing their expertise and helping people get the right support when they need it.
The communities we serve are changing too. We work with families, faith groups and local organisations to help more people understand what hospice care can offer and know that support is there for them.
Because serious illness can affect any family, at any age and from any background.
For many families, the difference hospice care makes can be seen in where someone is able to spend their final days.
Last year, 70% of people who died while receiving support from ellenor died in their known preferred place of death, compared with 13% who died in hospital.
Behind those figures are patients spending their final days in a place that matters to them, often surrounded by the people they love and supported by professionals who know them and their needs.
None of this happens without the support of the local community.
Many supporters may never meet the people they help. They may never know the name of the person whose care their support has helped make possible. They may never know the name of the person whose care they have helped fund. But their support means that when someone needs specialist care at home, when a family needs support, or when someone needs care at the hospice, that care is there when it is needed.
That is what hospice care looks like today.
It isn’t only about the end of life. It is people working together – patients and families, healthcare professionals, ellenor’s teams and our supporters – to make sure people receive the care they need, where they need it.
And as our communities grow and change, making sure people understand what hospice care can offer matters more than ever.
Filter by:
