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MAKING A DIFFERENCE TOGETHER
SUPPORTING PATIENTS AND WHĀNAU
Our Family Support team provides emotional, spiritual, cultural, functional, and social support to people with a terminal or life-limiting illness and their whānau. The team supports patients, and their whānau through a diverse range of services including art, music, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, counselling, social work, spiritual care, whānau support, bereavement care and biographies.
The team continually seeks ways to be inclusive and responsive to the needs of patients and whānau. This year, they have
been engaged with a new career step programme which will recognise the development of advanced skills and knowledge in palliative care. In addition, the team has played a pivotal
role in several key working groups. These groups have been dedicated to promoting inclusive care, ensuring positive outcomes for Māori patients and their whānau, and enhancing staff resilience.
In our counselling sessions, various resources are introduced to provide a safe holding space for feelings and thoughts during the session, and to help individuals support themselves at other times.
“When discussing coping tools with a client who was deeply missing her deceased partner and finding the pain overwhelming, I mentioned the concept of 20-second hugs. Research shows that hugging a person or even a pillow for 20 seconds can release oxytocin. I suggested she try using a Squishmallow, as it might feel more like a real hug. A few days later, she told me what a difference it had made. How wonderful!” Te Omanga Hospice Counsellor.
Over the past year, our Spiritual Care Coordinator has increasingly collaborated with knitting volunteers from the community. Patients and carers navigating an end-of-life journey often find it helpful and grounding to hold something as a comfort, so we provide stones, shells, wooden holding crosses and knitted hearts for this purpose.
The knitted hearts fit beautifully into the palm of the hand and the softness offers support, warmth and comfort for people. They can be imbued with meaning, or connection, representing the love of the person who is dying or the care they are receiving – whatever is needed. We are deeply grateful for our collaboration with volunteers and the local knitters’ group. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to offer this spiritual and bereavement support in such a meaningful way.
Thanks to a generous grant from Pelorus Trust & NZCT, our hospice patient rooms now feature new Smart TVs. One advantage of these TVs is the ability to access apps like YouTube for our Music Therapist’s sessions, which means music that holds personal significance for our patients is able to be played. Our Music Therapist can also create relaxing Spotify playlists with patients, offering them comfort during their time at the Hospice.
Often patients feel a deep connection to nature, finding joy
in watching and listening to the tūī in the Hospice gardens, and admiring the cherry blossoms and kōwhai trees. To support these patients, our Music Therapist and Spiritual Care Coordinator have been gathering resources for a ‘nature Kete’, which includes native bird call CDs, an ocean drum that mimics the sound of the sea, nature books, and playing nature slideshows on the Smart TVs.
Along with providing services to patients and their whānau, the Family Support team continued to contribute to the education programme at Te Omanga Hospice and a number of community events. This extends to support for their colleagues providing palliative care in primary and tertiary care. Four times a year, our Counsellors attend and support sessions on bereavement and self-care during education days at Hutt Hospital, providing guidance to nurses, healthcare assistants, trainee nurses, and other staff.
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