Hospice Isle of Man has launched the Scholl Academic Centre, a new educational centre that will enable the charity to deliver its strategy.
Over the last few years the hospice’s researchers have been engaging with people within the community to find out what matters to them. The key findings have been that what matters to people most is choice, in where they live, where they receive their care and where they die when the time comes.
Commenting on the launch, CEO Anne Mills explained how the centre will help the hospice meet people’s needs:
“The ability of Hospice to offer greater choice relies on a number of things; the provision of quality palliative and end of life care training and education; the development of a flexible Integrated Palliative and End of Life Care Service; and the innovation of new models of care.
“Creating the Scholl Academic Centre is fundamental to delivering our strategy and I am delighted that we have been able to move so quickly to being able to launch the centre.
“The work we do here will have a positive impact on our community in the following ways:
- Academic research will allow us to develop and evaluate new models of integrated palliative and end of life care that better suit the needs of the people who use our service.
- Palliative and end of life care training for other health care professionals, carers and the people that matter most, will give our patients and service users more choice in where they receive their ‘Hospice Influenced Care’.
- The learning and sharing of knowledge with local, national and international partners will allow our staff to develop their skills, and then share this knowledge with other key partners in the community.
- The creation of a more compassionate community on the Island will mean that more people are supported to live independently.
“We already have lots to build on, with existing success in leading the joint needs assessment for integrated palliative and end of life care as part of the Island Plan, in leading Special Interest Groups within the International Centre for Integrated Care and with a programme of Project ECHO tele mentoring sessions successfully delivered to date.”
At the launch Anne also discussed the many existing partnerships that the Scholl Academic Centre has already established, including universities in Hong Kong, Australia and the USA.
The Centre is being mostly funded by the Dr.Scholl Foundation through specific grant funding. Foundation representative Susan Scholl was in attendance to officially launch the Academic Centre. She said:
“The Dr. Scholl Foundation believes that solutions to the problems of today’s world lie in the values of innovation, practicality, hard work and compassion so it is entirely fitting for us to be the sponsor of the Scholl Academic Centre.
“The Scholl Foundation has changed the lives of many people across the world and we are very impressed at how the Centre as a locally based organisation here on the Island has attracted some of the most prestigious global partners to work with, this can only be a good thing for the people of the Isle of Man.”
Other speakers at the launch included Minister for Health and Social Care David Ashford and a panel of international partners from Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland.
For more information visit Hospice Isle of Man
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