Page 7 - TOH_Making a difference 2023-2024

We held several celebrations at the Hospice. For Matariki, a special ceremony was held in the Hospice grounds, a chance to remember those who have died during the year, celebrate the present, look to the future and plan for the year ahead. We also joined together to honour the cards written by families during the Farmers Christmas promotions, with a card cremation ceremony. Each person added cards to the fire pit. Once cool, the ashes were scattered on our gardens.
The Hospice Sustainability Group continues their actions around the Hospice. Their efforts reflect our commitment to creating
a more sustainable environment for everyone at the Hospice. We have been progressively moving our vehicle fleet to hybrid vehicles, with support from philanthropic grants, which is saving us on petrol costs.
We are most grateful for the gift of a new generator from the Silverstream Lions Club. It is good to know we can flick the switch at any time should we lose power, and the generator will kick into action and run the whole hospice building.
Our people
Together with our Human Resources partner, Humankind, we embarked on an employee driven project to gather insights and co-design solutions with our staff to build a sustainable workplace in which we all thrive. The result was the 2024 People and Culture Plan, which included initiatives we will develop and deliver throughout the year.
Te Omanga Hospice was given the opportunity to participate
in the Best Places to Work survey and were shortlisted for the 2024 Best Places to Work Awards. This is the first time we have taken part in a national survey of this kind, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to see how we were tracking following our Employee Experience Project.
Overall, it has been a great year for volunteering, we are so blessed to have an ongoing steady flow of willing people to help. We have had good engagement, recruitment and retention with 68 new volunteers this year. All in all, 41,868 hours of time have been donated, which amounts to an additional $1 million in services delivered.
Congratulations to those members of our team who had their research projects published this year. Our Palliative Medicine Consultant, Dr Salina Iupati has had two articles published on her PhD research project on Community Palliative Care Models of Care, and Dr Kaye Basire and David Gillmore for their co- authoring of “Beyond Feasibility”: patients, their whānau (family) and staff perspectives of delirium prevention.”
During Hospice Awareness Week, Dr Salina Iupati, was featured in an article in the NZ Listener, where the lack of talking about dying was discussed.
We farewelled two long serving staff members this year: Siew Tan, Senior Medical Officer (30 years of service) and Raelee Jensen, Education Coordinator (20 years of service). Their individual contributions to palliative care and our community have been outstanding and we wish them
all the best.
A final word
I would like to thank our incredible team of staff and volunteers, whose dedication helps us to meet the needs of our patients
and their whānau. Thank you to the Executive Leadership team and the Chairs and Trustees of the Te Omanga Hospice Trust
and Te Omanga Hospice Foundation for their support throughout the year.
The generosity and continuous support of people in our community inspire us every day. Together, we make a significant impact on the lives of those who need our care. Thank you.
Biddy Harford MNZM Chief Executive
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