Airedale Hospital’s Palliative Care team are encouraging staff, patients, and the local community to start open and honest conversations about death, dying and grief, in support of Hospice UK’s ‘Dying Matters Awareness Week 2023’.
Happening from May 8-14, the Palliative Care team will be leading conversations about grief and dying, which are important for families to have, but conversations that are often neglected due their perceived uncomfortable nature.
With the support of Airedale Hospital & Community Charity, the Palliative Care team have recently been able to fund and provide items to enhance the care of patients receiving end of life care. Items such as bereavement boxes, refreshment trolleys, bedside recliner chairs and toiletry bags have made a real difference, providing a sense of comfort to patients and their families whose lives are drawing to a close.
Joanne Hunter, End of Life Support Assistant at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“The items provided by the charity made through generous donations from the public help us to make a genuine difference to the lives of patients in our care. Using items like the end-of-life trolleys, we are able to use calming music and candles to transform a plain and clinical environment into a peaceful and calming sanctuary.
“Other funded items such as the bereavement boxes help provide children with the appropriate resources such as books, handprints, and poems to help them understand and cope with the death of a loved one.”
Aimée Lindsay, Communications & Charity Assistant at Airedale Hospital & Community Charity, said:
“We are very grateful for the donations made so that AHCC can support the Palliative Care team here at Airedale. They work so hard to provide the best care possible for our patients and their families at a difficult and emotional time, and we are proud to help them care for the Airedale community.”
To find out more about how you can support the work of the Palliative Care team and the charity, please visit airedalecharity.org
Photographed: Kimberly Nowakowski and Joanne Hunter from Airedale Palliative Care Team stand next to donated bedside recliner chair
