Helderberg Hospice
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Mission Statement
Our Vision – to facilitate quality of life and alleviate suffering within our community so that people experience peace, comfort and dignity when it matters most. Our Mission – to provide and advocate for experienced, holistic, compassionate palliative care to meet the needs of those facing a life-threatening illness. Our Goals – staff development and training, sustainable and impactful growth, engaged communication strategy, better patient service, enhanced credibility.
About This Cause
Helderberg Hospice was founded in 1986 as a Section 21 Company (Association Not for Gain), and has since converted to a Non-Profit Company (NPC). Helderberg Hospice is a comprehensive Palliative Care Provider mandated to serve our community by providing specialised, skilled, and compassionate hospice palliative care to all persons who are referred to us who are facing a life threatening illness. Palliative Care is a life-enhancing support system intended to promote quality of life. In 1990, the Somerset West Municipality granted Helderberg Hospice a 99-year lease on an old derelict farmhouse standing in the middle of a large garden with a magnificent sea view. We care for patients suffering from Cancer, HIV/AIDS, TB, degenerative Neurological Disorders, Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis, end stage Parkinson’s, and end stage organ failure. Patients are supported to live full and comfortable lives through the management of pain and symptoms control with additional holistic support including physical, emotional, psychosocial and spiritual. Our care is delivered by a well-trained and highly qualified interdisciplinary palliative care team where the interests of the patient, family and loved ones remain our primary concern. Each member of the team brings their professional skills to ensure holistic, highly intensive, 24-hour care to patients and support to their families and loved ones. We have a well-developed pool of approximately 85 active volunteers, who play an important role throughout the organisation in many different supportive roles, including reception, meal collections, hospitality, special events, retail assistance, gardening, and therapeutic services, thereby contributing highly to the cost effectiveness of overall service delivery. Palliative Care (PC) is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with a life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment, and treatment of pain and other problems ie. Physical, emotional, social and spiritual.” Undoubtedly, one of the most important aims of a high-quality health care system is the alleviation of suffering and the implementation of an effective palliative care plan (Sleeman et al., 2019) . This requires the collaboration of a trained multi-disciplinary palliative care team (Bowen, 2014). Our main focus is to treat all patients and their loved ones with dignity and respect by adhering to these core palliative care principles: • To treat each person as an individual by offering a personalised and holistic service. • To enable people to maintain the maximum possible level of independence, choice and control. • To respect people’s rights to privacy and confidentiality. • To engage family members and carers as care partners. Helderberg Hospice offers the following services: • Palliative Care Professional Nurses implementing patient care plans in their homes or place of care • 24 Hour Specialist Palliative Intermediate Care Support Centre • Psychosocial Palliative Care including bereavement counselling Our mandate is • Effective delivery of specialised, quality palliative care in our community through partnerships with both public and private sector community based organisations. Partnerships include mentoring, teaching of palliative care principles and memoranda of understanding between organisations. • Delivery of palliative care by well-trained specialist palliative care staff working in an interdisciplinary team where the interests of the patient and their loved ones are our primary concern. • To give appropriate and unconditional care to people referred to us who are suffering from a life threatening illness. • To provide support to the patient and family from the point of referral to the end of the bereavement period. • To train, support and nurture all our staff and volunteers to keep them motivated and to ensure a sustainable team which can provide high levels of care to patients on a consistent basis. • To provide palliative care to all patients regardless of their ability to contribute, and where possible, recover costs from the medical aid schemes who support palliative care service provision. • To provide good governance, leadership, and management thereby ensuring the organisation operates efficiently and sustainably to allow us to build resources and reserves to adequately meet our ongoing future commitments. • To uphold palliative care standards throughout the organisation. Once a referral for Hospice care has been received and finalised, a patient folder is opened and a professional palliative nurse is assigned to each new patient. Each new patient receives a home visit from the nursing team and a clinical first assessment is conducted. Thereafter, a unique care plan is drafted for each patient and patient care is coordinated by our professional, qualified, palliative care trained Sisters – linking medical, social and volunteer team members and co-ordinating care between the patient, the family and other hospice team members. Services are provided in the patient’s home by a specialised care team, including a palliative professional nurse, with additional input from medical specialists, general practitioners, and allied health professionals. Hospice care is available 24/7 for every patient in our care. Weekly interdisciplinary team meetings are held for feedback, discussions and co-ordination of care for each patient. Medical equipment is available on loan and free of charge to patients for use in their own homes. Effective palliative care is compassionate and cost effective. Helderberg Hospice remains focused on delivering its mission to make palliative care available to all in the Helderberg area. In 1993, after much love and devotion from volunteers and staff, Hospice House was opened as a 24-hour intermediate care facility with a capacity of 9 in-patient beds for the care and support of palliative patients who are in need of short term intensive care in addition to the care they receive in their homes. The facility overlooks an extensive garden, cared for by volunteers, which adds a therapeutic ambience to the surroundings. Our intermediate care facility is inspected annually by the Department of Health (DoH) to maintain the annual license as a non-acute care establishment in terms of Regulation 187. Helderberg Hospice holds a five star accreditation with the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA) and five star membership with the Hospice Palliative Care Association (HPCA). Average stays range up to two weeks. This is flexible according to the patient’s needs, however, we do not take long term placements for care. Criteria for admission to the intermediate care facility are clearly defined, including: • Patient must be a Helderberg Hospice patient with a patient folder and requiring either: o pain and symptom management o family respite o terminal care On discharge from the intermediate care facility, patients are then transferred back to their homes and the professional palliative nursing team resumes home visits to ensure continuity of care and implementation of the patient’s care plan. Direct admission to the unit from hospitals is welcomed in line with the criteria for admission. The 24-hour Palliative Care Support Centre is the most costly part of the entire Hospice service. Ability or willingness to pay plays no part in the decision to admit a patient to the facility. We are registered with the Medical Aid Schemes and on occasion bill the schemes according to medical aid tariffs in order to recover a portion of the care costs from schemes which recognise and fund palliative care. A small percentage of our patients have any medical cover and most patients fall fully within the state system of support. Social workers are an essential part of the Hospice interdisciplinary approach to all patient care. Hospice employs three professional social workers who provide psycho-social palliative care to those in need throughout the Helderberg Basin. Together with colleagues, they are able to encompass most languages and provide quality services to persons from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Hospice adopts an approach that assists patients and families to find their own strengths for a journey that is different for each person. Intrinsic to Hospice care is the belief that despite an illness and loss, there is also a remarkable opportunity for self-awareness, change and growth. Comprehensive care plans embrace the clinical, psychosocial and spiritual aspects of care, and coordination of this care takes place in the interdisciplinary team (IDT) meetings. The social work team is also responsible for bereavement support for the loved ones after the death of the patient. The social service provides individual and family counselling sessions, growing resilience and adjustment to illness and dying. Practical assistance is also provided, in accessing various grants and pensions and supporting fundamental principles of human rights as they impact on gender issues, child protection and those at-risk of abuse in various domains. Special attention is paid to orphans and vulnerable children through a specially designed assessment tool and intervention programme, as well as close collaboration with child protection agencies. Supporting palliative care at Helderberg Hospice ensures the maximum impact of donations goes directly towards patient care. Palliative care is a feasible and affordable response to individual suffering that impacts people across the whole spectrum of the society. Without the help and support of the private and corporate sectors, various Trusts and Foundations, and organisations such as yourselves, the fundamental right of people to compassionate care and support when they are vulnerable to loss and grief, would be unmet. Hospice fills this critical gap.