No one is immune – at some stage in our life we all lose someone we love. At St Luke’s we embrace the patient and their family through a period which is often devastating and traumatic as our multi-disciplinary teams step in with nursing, medical treatment, psychosocial care, practical advice and spiritual guidance.
St Luke’s Hospice is not a place, it’s a philosophy of care. As one of the oldest Hospices in South Africa – celebrating 35 years of caring this year – we pride ourselves on our invaluable services which we offer to the communities of the Greater Cape Town area to free of charge.
On any given day the St. Luke’s interdisciplinary team administers to close on 900 patients and their families at our in-patient unit at Kenilworth, 7 community centres and a large base of community health workers who administer to patients in their homes under the supervision of qualified professional nurses who attend to bedridden patients suffering from HIV/Aids and chronic diseases, and provide essential services such as washing, feeding, bed-making, mobilizing, dressings, mouth care etc. doing health promotion and as such preventing diseases, they also do TB and ARV adherence.
The theme for this year’s Hospice Week (3 to 10 May) is “Passion for Compassion”. At St Luke’s Hospice, we provide Palliative Care which affirms life and its purpose is looking after someone as a ‘whole person’, and not only a physical being. Its objective is to keep the patient free from all distressing symptoms, particularly pain if it is present, so that they have quality of life, and live as actively as possible. Palliative Care neither hastens nor postpones death which is a natural process. Our care and support is also extended to the patient’s loved ones in every way necessary.
Our care is offered to our patients – from all walks of life, all religions and all cultures – at no cost. We are therefore heavily reliant on donations, and sponsorships, from kind-hearted individuals and corporates who, like St Luke’s Hospice, are passionate about making a difference to the lives of the terminally ill.
For free advice on how to become a St Luke’s Hospice patient, or to donate or volunteer towards the upkeep of these services please contact marketing@stlukes.co.za or go to www.stlukes.co.za for more information.
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