A range of Walsall staff will be sharing the contribution they make to end-of-life patients’ experiences and the support given to their families as they celebrate national Hospice Care Week.

Goscote Hospice and Walsall Palliative Care Centre will take centre stage to highlight the efforts being made to provide personalised, high-quality care and celebrate innovation.

Staff also hope to dispel some of the myths around hospice care and show how support helps patients feel more in control to make informed decisions.

Goscote Hospice is delivered as an integrated service through Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust. It is housed at Walsall Palliative Care Centre in Goscote Lane, along with Fair Oaks Day Hospice and a range of other specialist palliative care services.

Sindy Dhallu, Care Group Manager & Professional Lead for Palliative & End of Life Care, said: “We welcome the spotlight that national Hospice Care Week brings – starting from today – as while it sparks conversations about death and dying, this focus also gives us an opportunity to raise wider awareness of all aspects of what we do.

“Many people fear coming to a hospice as they imagine them to be sad places but the sound of laughter and fun often ring out from our centre. A better image to conjure up about hospices is that they are a comforting haven for our patients, their families and carers, offering individualised support that is specifically tailored to the needs of people who are dying and the people who are trying to come to terms with living beyond their loved one’s death. And our staff talk about how rewarding it is to work here and how they feel privileged to be able to offer support when people need it most.”

Hospices offer holistic care that is:

Physical – focusing on supporting symptoms such as pain

Emotional – addressing fears and worries

Psychological – coming to terms with life-limiting illness

Social – getting personal affairs in order

Religious and Spiritual – focusing on people’s beliefs and thoughts

Sindy added: “We can give people access to our wider specialist palliative care teams so that patients with life-limiting illness can continue to live with their illness – the focus is not just about death and dying. It’s about being in control of the stage their lives are at now as well as into the future so they can make informed choices.”

Hospice Care Week runs from 9-15 October.