Bangalore Hospice Trust - Karunashraya
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : r**********r@k**********a.o*g
Mission Statement
Mission: To provide compassionate palliative care for people with a life-limiting illness, and for those important to them, through quality medical, emotional, spiritual and social support. Vision: Will be 2020- ● Provide highest quality In-patient and home based palliative care, free of cost, to people with a life limiting illness ● Continuously improve the quality of palliative care provided through research, training and innovation ● Play a lead role in advocacy of palliative care Programs - run by BHT - Karunashraya in the field of palliative care for advanced cancer patients includes: ● In-patient care ● Home Care ● Education In-patient care In-patient care acts as an alternative to hospitals for advanced stage cancer patients who require palliative support to alleviate their physical and emotional trauma. Hospitals are not always equipped to provide palliative care. Moreover, lack of proper family support physical frailty and dearth of necessary trainings related to palliative care prevent these patients from receiving optimum support at home. Specialized care is required in such instances which are provided at our center. Most of the patients are highly dependent (physically and emotionally) and go through complex problems such as extreme pain. Palliative care is combination of nursing care, psychological and spiritual support which is difficult to achieve anywhere else. We offer patients the flexibility to alternate between their homes and the hospice. Family members are trained by our team members to take care of patients at their respective homes, as they often long to be with their near and dear ones. The hospice currently has 73 beds divided in six wards and few single rooms. Home care Our Home Care program is the first of its kind in India. The objective of the program is to enable patients, who are still mobile, to stay at their homes and receive care from us. This facility can be provided as long as the nature of disease and its symptomatic effects on the patients permit them to receive quality care at home. The home care team comprises of multi-disciplinary nurses, social workers and doctors who provide palliative care (including counseling), to patients and families in and around Bangalore. Here again, the psychological support plays a very important role. In the last 26years, through our Home care services we have cared for around 4805 patients, of which around 4733 have died, free from pain, and with dignity. The average number of patients under our care at any point of time remains around 100. Education Since inception, education has been corner stone of all our activities at BHT- Karunashraya. Our experience and expertise over the years, has enabled us to create opportunities where we can to share this knowledge with others. KARUNASHRAYA’s Excellence in Education and Training In view of the fact that our country has a dearth of trained professionals for delivering palliative care to patients, producing trained human resource has been one of the major mandates of Karunashraya. Major activities in education and training are summarized below. • Karunashraya regularly organizes advanced therapeutic courses in palliative medicine for doctors and nurses. We train doctors of the state government hospitals in palliative care. Karunashraya has signed a MoU with the Government of Karnataka for organizing these training courses. • Karunashraya has also taught palliative care to doctors of many Indian states, including, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Chhatisgarh, Assam, Puducherry, Haryana, Mizoram, Gujarat and Manipur. • Once every three months, palliative care professionals from all over Bangalore meet to discuss recent developments in topics pertinent to their field. • Doctors and nurses undergo clinical training at Karunashraya for the National Fellowship Program conducted by IPM and CMA. • We have also provided training to staff of associate hospices, as also guidance for operating their set ups. • Every year, we admit girls from economically deprived sections of the society into a six-month course of nursing aides, and give stipend to them during the course of the training. Some of these nursing aides are hired by us and the rest are able to secure job elsewhere. • Students from diverse academic and medical institutions also undergo internship and training in Karunashraya. • Karunashraya has successfully partnered with the Department of Palliative Medicine, Cardiff University and ecancer in developing an e-learning course for palliative care. The course has 20 one-hour modules and is available for free download. • Karunashraya also has MoU with National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences and Manipal Academy of Higher Education for collaboration in education.
About This Cause
BHT – Karunashraya a non-profit public charitable Trust is a hospice rendering palliative care (free of charge) to advanced stage cancer patients. We believe that this is the most crucial stage in a patient’s life, when he or she has suddenly lost the security and comfort of a hospital as there is no scope for further treatment. The trauma of losing medical support and the fear of impending death is indiscernible. They have to then depend on their families completely for care, who more often are not equipped financially and emotionally to deal with the situation. This is the stage when all these patients, rich or poor, deserve the peace and dignity before the inevitable end comes. Our aim at BHT- Karunashraya is to provide the much needed support compassion and dignity to the advanced stage cancer patients and their families. Jointly set up by the Indian Cancer Society (Karnataka chapter) and the Rotary Club of Bangalore, Indiranagar, BHT is successfully in its 22nd year of operation of the In-patient facility and 26th year of operation of the home care facility. Till date through our services, we have been able to reach out to more than 24,800 patients. During this period our team of dedicated professionals, have come a long way in achieving our objective which is to alleviate pain (physical, psychological and spiritual) and severe damage that terminal cancer can cause not only to patients but their near and dear ones. Today we have a 73 bed 'In-patient' facility, where patients are admitted, irrespective of caste, creed, gender, religion, or socio economic status. In addition to this we have a ‘Home Care’ service, where a dedicated medical professional team visits the advanced stage cancer patients at their homes to provide them and their families, necessary care, guidance and emotional support. In situations where the patient needs care at the ‘In–patient’ facility, the same is recommended. Governance Structure BHT is managed by a Board of 10 trustees, which includes the Chairman, Managing Trustee, Medical Director and the Treasurer. All trustees devote their time to BHT on an honorary basis. BHT has two parent bodies: - The Indian Cancer Society and the Rotary Club of Bangalore, Indiranagar. Each of these organizations is entitled to name five trustees and the term of each trustee is reviewed every two years. The Board holds a meeting every three to four months (minimum three meetings a year). Additionally, a small group comprising of the Chairman, Managing Trustee, Medical Director, Treasurer and one of the trustees meet at least twice a month to manage the daily affairs. Compliance with laws and regulations is ensured by a team which includes the Managing Trustee, Treasurer, and the Finance and Administration Manager, with professional advice from the external auditors. The day-to-day activities of the Trust are supervised by the Chief Executive Officer and the Finance Manager. A well-qualified Medical Director - who is also a trustee, is in charge of the entire medical aspects. An Annual Report is published every year to provide an overview of BHT’s operations and financial activities in the financial year. It is a public document, and is available at the Trust premises. Once published, the report is sent via email and post to most donors, patients’ relatives, funders, bankers and other stakeholders. Health care activities in BHT are managed as follows: ● Medical Director (who is also a trustee) is responsible for all medical aspects and is supported by four full time doctors as well as five counselors ● Trained professional nursing staff to look after the nursing needs of In-patients ● Three Home Care teams to take care of patients who are at home and need nursing and psychological care