In response to an increase in residents from BAME communities within our catchment area – especially in the 0-5 and 20-30 age groups and those over 55 – the hospice has been increasing its outreach activities.
This has involved visits to schools and mosques, holding a faith groups open day and taking part in local Asian community radio programmes – phone-ins and direct studio talk to get the message across – and local mosques’ radio to announce special events.
The answer, we find, is not in just handing out leaflets about our services; there needs to be opportunities to relate with people and explain the resources etc which are available.
We have also been running (as part of mandatory training for staff) cultural awareness courses – which have been held in-house using multi-media presentations but also involve visits to a mosque, Buddhist centre, Jewish synagogue and Hindu temple.
This has helped develop skills within the team of being able to deal with situations appropriately in families’ homes and at the hospice. I’m happy to share our resources with other hospices if they can be of use.
Patient contacts have developed slowly but now the ‘drip drip’ has moved to a ‘trickle’ and still we continue with outreach.
This year we are looking into holding an ‘open’ event in a mosque, sharing in local community activities and working as closely as possible with Building Bridges in Burnley and Building Bridges Pendle – these two groups have helped with productive links in the local communities following the issues in this area of 2001.
A number of young Asian people have become volunteers at the hospice at weekends and during school holidays; this is a really positive sign. The hospice physicians are also supporting young people applying to read medicine, offering some insight into end of life care.
The broader base of the spiritual care team also helps in building relationships in the community. Our team includes a Muslim woman and a humanist, along with a variety of lay and ordained members of the Christian faith. We can also call on an Imam and a Buddhist monk whenever the need arises.
We try to take advantage of opportunities to reach the community – I had the privilege of addressing a supper meeting of 100 Asian men along with the local MP and Imam. Our chief executive has addressed the Mayor of Pendle’s Charity Ball. And involvement with conferences run by the Woolf Institute have led to encouraged developments.
One thing we have found is that the hospice’s own community engagement meetings have perhaps been the least successful of approaches, but we all need to try and develop our own skills in meeting the needs of the differing communities which make up the local population of where we work.
You can contact Chris Cheeseman on 01282 440138 or by email chris.cheeseman@pendleside.org.uk
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