Aims and Objectives
- To provide palliative holistic care to people of all ages with a life threatening illness and to achieve the best quality of life leading towards a dignified death with minimum distress.
- To provide support for family and friends especially those in the carer role.
- To provide a supportive environment to enable the person to live comfortably and be cared for in the familiar and reassuring surroundings of their own home until the end of their life or to facilitate transition from home to hospice or hospital if appropriate.
- To prevent people and their families suffering from any stress related illness that may result from the nature of the disease, treatment and management of such life threatening illness.
- To facilitate adjustment to losses of advanced and terminal illness and to prevent problems associated with bereavement.
- To provide special support where the persons death may affect young children, or where the person is a child or adolescent.
- To provide information about recognition of stress related illness associated with:
- treatment of life threatening illness e.g. anticipation anxiety associated with chemotherapy
- meeting the demands, adjustments and challenges introduced when suffering from a life threatening illness
- meeting the demands, adjustments and challenges of caring for a person with a life threatening illness
- providing resources, referrals and information about personnel and treatment options e.g. complementary medicine, counselling, pastoral care, respite care, practical support with financial, legal or welfare obligations
- Liaising within the multidisciplinary team, including complementary and orthodox health professionals, volunteers, school teachers, friends and family, to provide the highest quality care and broadest range of care.
- To anticipate problems from a holistic perspective and therefore ensure early recognition of changes in needs, prevent unwanted outcomes, dissatisfaction and side effects of treatment and management. As a result controlling unwanted effects of the disease on all levels of a persons existence i.e. physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
- To provide education, personal development programs, advice and support to other health professionals and carers working in similar circumstances and to the wider community.
- To provide an evidenced based approach to practice and to be involved in education, training and research.
- To provide a 24 hour on call service.
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
- Buddha
- Buddha