Local hospice receives £100k funding to help Derbyshire care homes and their residents

Categories: Care and Fundraising.

Local charity Treetops Hospice has received £100,000 funding to help Derbyshire care homes support residents who are approaching the end of their life.

The two-year funding for the pioneering project has come from The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust. The funding enables Laura Slack and Faye Thrasivoulou, Treetops Care Home Development and End of Life Care Support Nurses, to train care home staff to recognise the signs and symptoms when a resident’s health declines and understand how best to meet their final wishes.

The ‘End-of-Life Care Virtual Ward’ project will have a significant impact, as Faye explained:

“Residential home residents are often admitted to hospital or transferred to a nursing home as their needs increase towards the end of their life. This can result in residents dying in unfamiliar surroundings. The resident may wish to die in the residential home where they may have lived for several years, as it is their home. The Care Home Development Nurses aim is to facilitate residents to die in their preferred place of care.

“We provide training to care homes that aims to empower staff to feel confident in having sensitive conversations with residents to identify and record their final wishes in advance.

“We provide practical training for teams, bespoke to each home. We’re training whole teams, from care staff to domestic staff, to recognise early on when a resident’s health starts to decline, and how to care for them. And we offer ongoing peer support.”

The residential homes are also able to call on the Treetops Hospice at Home and Roaming Nurse Service out-of-hours for clinical support when needed.

Long Eaton View is one of the first residential homes to receive the one-of-its-kind training and support model. Debbie Rhodes, Registered Manager, said:

“The support from Treetops Hospice has been an absolute Godsend. Laura and Faye are so supportive. They have almost become part of our team, as though they’ve always been here.’’

“Being able to provide extra support for our staff, especially the younger members of our team, has been brilliant. It has helped take away a lot of the fear of the unknown. Knowing that there’s a professional around is reassuring.

“The training has helped develop and refresh our skills. The education around talking about death and dying has led to more open conversations amongst residents and their families. It’s been very rewarding and we’re grateful for the training.”

The training is being made available to 15 residential care homes across Erewash during the two-year funding period. The project leads the way on best practice across the health and care sector and will influence the delivery of end-of-life care locally and nationally.

Richard Benson, Director of The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust said:

 “The Trust is delighted to support this project. As society ages and more of us live with complex conditions, it’s essential that we improve care for people as they approach the end of their life.

“The project will see Treetops work with local care homes to help them have those conversations with residents and families, and to train care home staff to respond to their needs. This is an innovative and practical approach which we hope will develop into a model that others can follow.”

Last year, Treetops Hospice supported more than 2,000 patients and their families. The hospice cares for adults with life-limiting conditions, those who’ve been bereaved, as well as their loved ones. All Treetops services are provided free-of-charge and not means-tested.

For further information about Treetops services visit www.treetops.org.uk or call 0115 949 1264.

———————–

Photo caption:Pictured: Treetops Care Home Development and End of Life Care Support Nurses with staff from Long Eaton View Care Home

About Treetops Hospice

Treetops Hospice, the leading end-of-life care charity in Derby, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, provides nursing care and emotional support for adults with life-limiting conditions, those who’ve been bereaved, and their families.

The charity provides support from diagnosis onwards for patients with conditions such as cancer, motor neurone disease and heart and respiratory conditions.

In 2023, we were very proud to celebrate 40 years of caring for people and their families in our local community. We achieved this amazing milestone thanks to our dedicated volunteers who help across the whole hospice and in our charity shops, our hard-working staff team, and our supporters, past and present.

Last year, our team of Hospice at Home nurses provided over 18,000 hours of care to terminally-ill patients, working day and night to give much-needed support.

Our team of bereavement counsellors provided over 4,500 counselling sessions – more than 1,200 of them to children and young people. Wellbeing team members provide valuable information and support to those who need it.

Treetops is doing all it can to continue to support those in most need and welcomes donations to ensure the future of the hospice and its services: www.treetopshospice.org.uk/donate

A counselling session for a bereaved child costs £34.50. An overnight Hospice at Home nursing shift for a patient at the end of life costs £108.

Treetops Hospice Trust, Derby Road, Risley, Derbyshire, DE72 3SS

0115 949 1264 | www.treetopshospice.org.uk

Registered Charity Number 519540

 

About The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust

The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust is a grant-making Trust, established in 1964. In keeping with Sir Jules’s original intentions, the Trust’s largest grants support translational medical research undertaken in the UK’s leading medical schools and NHS organisations. Beyond medical research, the Trust’s other grant programmes support health and care services.

The project at Treetops is supported by the Trust’s Innovation and Improvement in Health and Care programme, which provides capital investment to support UK charities and NHS organisations to develop new models of care for people living with serious or life-limiting conditions, and to improve the integration of health and care services.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *