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Hospice Patient and Carer Voices |
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 What is a hospice?
The patients featured in this film have found that hospice care helps
them to cope with their illnesses and minimise pain. “Getting cancer
ain’t that bad, you know? I know I’m still very ill in my body but
coming up the hospice you look ‘round, you see other people and you can
ask questions without people going ‘oh here we go, doom and gloom',”
says one.
For those who come to a hospice at the end of
their lives find the care and surroundings provided by hospices enable
them to pass away with dignity and respect. It helps people to manage
their fears and gives patients and families the support, relaxation and
respect they require. As another patient comments, “My own
understanding of a hospice is a place where I can go to forget about
death, although it is unforgettable. I’m not now afraid of dying what I
am afraid of is the pain. And the people try to minimise that pain.”
Many patients report negative experiences at hospitals, where
they feel staff are over worked and unable to provide the level of care
required by terminally ill patients. As one of the hospice doctors
says: “Somebody facing a terminal illness, and that may be very early
on in the diagnosis right though to the last day’s of life, have very
different and very special needs some of which you can’t meet very
easily in a hospital setting. So I’m not going to be critical of
looking after people with terminal illnesses in a hospital but anybody
who walks into a hospice will notice there’s a very different culture,
a very different ambience which you don’t get in a hospital.”
The hospice featured in the programme also provides care for those left
behind when their loved ones pass away, and a team of specialists
providing the hospice care to patients who prefer to remain living in
their own lives. Tune-in to Community Channel to hear the reflections
and opinions of those receiving care from the nation’s hospices.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 17 March 2006 )
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