Spreading the word
Hospices have been holding open days, drop-in sessions and a host of events to help spread the word about the work they do, and how hospice care can be provided anywhere and everywhere. Local press and social media have also been impressively utilised to get the message out.
Personal stories have been a big part of the campaign, with patients and families sharing their stories in print, online and on local radio and TV shows, to help highlight the value of hospice care, and how it can make a difference to the end of life experience.
Not content with just a week of awareness-raising, Cornwall Hospice Care launched a year of personal story telling, which will see patients, families, staff and supporters share their personal stories through film and writing over the next 12 months.
Many hospices used films to demonstrate what they do. For example St Nicholas Hospice and St Barnabas House produced new films to show how they care for people in their own homes, and Earl Mountbatten Hospice launched a short film which shows the hospice through children’s eyes.
As part of the week, Compton Hospice encouraged its local community to show its support for hospice care by ‘Going Yellow‘ while Hartlepool & District Hospice held a Purple Day.
Elsewhere, St Giles Hospice suggested seven ways that people could get involved over the seven days of Hospice Care Week, while six hospices in Hertfordshire collaborated to conducted a survey, which found relatively low awareness among the local pubic of the hospices and what they did.
Blogs
Blogs have also been a good way for hospices to demonstrate what they do, with personal stories and ‘day in the life’ postings by staff and volunteers.
The Marie Curie blog has featured a series of articles, highlighting the different ways Marie Curie Hospices help terminally ill people and their families, and how little things can make a big difference:
“Mum was so happy that we could bring her cat to the hospice” http://t.co/ezBsiZXSVv #HospiceCareWeek pic.twitter.com/3Hh7QddlEP
— Marie Curie (@mariecurieuk) October 7, 2014
Evidently Chochrane has also been running an interesting series of blogs, focusing on research which supports palliative and hospice care, with articles on pain relief, supporting carers and palliative care for people with heart failure.
Social media
Lots of hospices used social media to help highlight what they do and engage with their local community, some running live Q&As with hospice staff or running day-long tweetathons to demonstrate day-to-day life at a hospice.
Tuesday also saw 140 people on Twitter take part in a Thunderclap to help raise the profile of hospice care across the UK.
Wow! Thank you to everyone who took part in the #HospiceCareWeek #Thunderclap – we told 149,015 people about Hospice care, everywhere!
— Help the Hospices (@HelptheHospices) October 7, 2014
On Wednesday Pilgrims Hospices hosted a 12-hour online chat across Twitter, Facebook and its website, with messages, blogs and photos from staff, patients, carers and volunteers using the hashtag #HospiceLive.
Our lovely volunteers take round the tea trolley and check if any patients want anything from the shops #HospiceLive http://t.co/QpOD6R4MBB
— Justine Pilgrims (@JustinePilgrims) October 8, 2014
And today (Friday) Marie Curie’s Edinburgh Hospice are live tweeting.
New services
Many hospices also used the week to launch or announce new services and initiatives.
St Helena Hospice launched a new bereavement friendship group, while Myton launched ‘Good to Great’ training for local GPs.
St Luke’s in Plymouth announced its new Crisis Team, which will launch in November and provide a 72 hour window of ‘crisis’ care until other care provisions are put in place.
St Catherine’s Hospice in Preston launched a new website for The Mill in St Catherine’s Park – a cafe, information and therapies hub which is due to open next month.
Meanwhile, local MP Meg Hillier officially opened the new ground floor and reception area at St Joseph’s Hospice, calling the new facilities “outstanding”.
Beyond the UK
Each year, Hospice Care Week is organised to coincide with the long running international campaign World Hospice and Palliative Care Day – a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. This year World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is taking place on 11 October 2014, and you can find out more about it on the international edition of ehospice and on the website.
This week also saw the first-ever Palliative Care Week being held across Ireland. The new public information campaign aimed to highlight how palliative care improves the quality of life of people with an incurable illness.
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