The aim of the programme is to support projects which provide patients with the skills they need to maintain their independence and quality of life. Full details can be found on Help the Hospices’ website.
The programme is now open for application, with a deadline of 6 October 2014.
How can a rehabilitation grant directly benefit hospice care?
Trinity Hospice in London demonstrates how a grant has enabled rehabilitation services at the hospice to become more prominent:
Following a grant awarded through the NHS England capital grant programme, the hospice launched their new physiotherapy gym for patients in December last year.
Located at the hospice and close to the inpatient centre, the gym allows patients to maintain and regain their level of fitness and independence and helps to manage their symptoms, which also impacts on families and carers.
Saskia Krijgsman, Lead Therapist at Trinity, said: “With the grant we have been able to create a wonderful area enabling rehabilitation and maintenance programmes for all of our patients including those who are able to come into Trinity Hospice from their homes. Most of our patients experience the gym as a really positive part of their life and some have said how it makes them feel ‘normal’ again.
“It offers patients an area to exercise and be active through movement with or without equipment, giving them an opportunity to work towards their personal goals and often giving them back their confidence and sense of self. The patients who attend our groups often also talk about the enjoyment of peer support and how they help each other to gain and maintain motivation and can give them joy in a time when they often feel low in motivation and low in mood.”
The gym is open to both inpatients and outpatients with a range of individual and group activities available, including fatigue management sessions, seated exercises, breathe better groups and whole body workout groups.
All group programmes are tailored to the individual, ensuring patients work at the right level for them and achieve realistic and measurable goals set together with their physiotherapist or occupational therapist.
This article is based on an article first published by Trinity in December 2013.
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