Tag Archive for ‘care’ at Karuna Hospice Services

Tag Archive for 'care'

World Hospice & Palliative Care Day

Published

on October 9, 2008

. 0 Comments

The first ever World Hospice and Palliative Care Day took place in October 2005 with more than 1,100 events taking place in 74 countries. It was launched by HRH Princess Anne in London, supported by Archbishop Desmond Tutu who described it as “an important global event”.

In 2006, high profile figures Bono and Sir Elton John marked the event by expressing their support for hospice care, and in 2007 Dame Judi Dench added her voice to the campaign.

This World Hospice and Palliative Care day coming up on October 11, let’s adjust the light and shade surrounding the issues of death and dying, and consider palliative care as an inspiring, special and precious time for all concerned.

A wise man from our Palliative Care Information Services (PCIS) team here at Karuna once said, “The problem with palliative care is half the population doesn’t know what it is, and those who do know, don’t want to know what it is”.

Dying is an essential part of all life, the only thing not certain is when. Home palliative care gives the terminally ill time with their loved ones in the comfort and familiar surroundings of their home to share stories, celebrate their lives and speak the words of their hearts.

Thousands of people around the world will be staging events to raise awareness and fundraise for hospice and palliative care services locally, nationally and internationally to mark this annual global event.

To find out more, log on to the World Hospice & Palliative Care Day Website or call 07 3632 8300.

Dog

Hospice, Care and Palliation in the 21st Century

Published

karuna

on March 17, 2008

in Articles

. 1 Comment

Hospice as a philosophy or value was first applied to a national health service by Dame Cecily Saunders who in the 1960s started a revolution in the care and treatment of the terminally ill. As a young doctor Cecily Saunders undertook to change the plight of cancer patients who were dying in hospital wards where staff were preoccupied with curative treatment. At the time of Saunders’ reform in care of the dying, cancer patients often suffered aggressive treatment almost to the point of death.

Throughout history the term hospice has been synonymous with devotion,kindness, compassion and caring, values that aligned perfectly with Cecily Saunders’ proposed model of total care for the terminally ill.

During the forty and more years since Dame Cecily first challenged the health care system to take better care of the terminally ill, the values of hospice have evolved into the science of palliation. Palliation is a useful term because while hospice defines the philosophy palliation describes the practice.

Palliative care was suggested by another hospice pioneer, Professor Balfour Mount from Canada, because the Latin and Greek meaning of palliation is to cloak or cover and some say to shield. Thus palliative care means to cloak or minimise the symptoms of advanced disease while at the same time shielding the patients and their loved ones from unnecessary harm caused by the situation.

Care and Caring

A distinguishing feature of the modern hospice movement is the alignment of palliation with care. I believe it was Balfour Mount who asserted that without ‘care’, palliation lacks distinction. Without ‘care’ palliation would be a ‘no frills’ mechanical process of symptom management and body maintenance, with no acknowledgement of the effects on the human experience and relationships.

Karuna Hospice Services by its name is declaring a commitment to compassionate care that embraces the total dimension of the human experience dealing with serious illness and the end of life. Kindness, compassion and care are fundamental qualities and care-giving an essential skill of Karuna’s staff and services.

Care and care giving is always in danger of being devalued as no more than ‘common sense’ or something that ‘just comes naturally’. While it may be an innate human quality, caring for seriously ill and vulnerable people is an art requiring complex skills. There is a science of caring as demonstrated by the numerous studies on, for example the elements of a caring relationship, the qualities of good care givers and the effects of care deprivation on infant development.

Hospice-Palliative Care in the 21st century

An important responsibility of the modern hospice-palliative care movement is to ensure that patients receive ‘evidence based’ or ‘best-practice’ clinical, psychosocial, spiritual and cultural care. This means that clients and families can be assured that the treatment or services offered are ‘tried and tested’ or proven in other ways to be the most appropriate for their situation.

Karuna Hospice Services is involved in several state and national projects that are working to improve services and meet standards of best practice. An example is Palliative Care Outcome Collaborative (PCOC) which is concerned with collecting data about practice and outcomes from which the standards of best practice can be determined.

Karuna is the lead organisation of a Commonwealth funded education project for registered nurses.The Specialist Nurse Education Project (SNEP) aims to prepare nurses as beginning level palliative care specialists. The SNEP course, which was developed with the Centre for Palliative Care Research and Education and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, received credit worthy status in postgraduate nursing courses at QUT.

Karuna is also working with the Palliative Care Network and Brisbane South Palliative Care Collaborative to develop best-practice guidelines for the handling of medications in the community.

Evidence-based or best practice is quite rightly the mantra of 21st century hospice-palliative care. The qualities of kindness, compassion and caring that underpin Karuna Hospice Services, while more difficult to define are never-the-less subject to scrutiny. Good care should be evident by the client’s quality of life, the family’s peace of mind and the enhanced self-esteem and self-confidence of the staff and others.

It’s wonderful that Karuna provides such a quality service.

by Dr Deborah Prior RN.PhD. FRCNA, Chairperson

The Karuna 2007 Annual Report

Published

karuna

on November 5, 2007

in Downloads

. 0 Comments

Download the full Karuna 2007 Annual Report in pdf format.

We are very proud to present this year’s annual report. 2007 has been a special year for all those involved with Karuna Hospice Services. Below is an extract, or you can download the full document above.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
2006/07 marks the tenth and final year that I will serve on Karuna’s Board of Management. I will also be retiring from the position of Chairman, which I have had the privilege of holding for the past eight years. Over the years, I have witnessed Karuna mature from a relatively small organisation into one that is continually growing in relevance and reputation in the community.

Karuna continues to respond to an ever increasing demand for its services and this is reflected in the progress made during the year in review. I am pleased to report that 2006/ 07 was one of the most successful in Karuna’s 15 year of operations.

HOME CARE PROGRAM
During 2006/07, Karuna cared for 344 families. With support from the community we were able to build our nursing team to 7.7 (FTE) and as a result we were able to increase the number of families we cared for each month to 56. Increasing the nursing pool also meant we were able to reach a milestone and extend our geographical boundaries to the south side of Brisbane.

COUNSELLING AND SPIRITUAL CARE PROGRAM
Over the past year, Karuna’s team of counsellors and spiritual carers provided support to 480 families experiencing a recent bereavement, 138 clients and their families living with a life limiting illness and 124 people with other issues relating to end of life.

WORKPLACE TRAINING AND EDUCATION
As part of our commitment to supporting the development of the palliative care workforce for the future, Karuna continued to offer education and training opportunities for students, nurses, counsellors and General Practitioners. In 2006/07 Karuna offered 10 student nursing placements and 4 clinical placements for qualified health professionals. In addition, Karuna developed a comprehensive specialist palliative care training program for registered nurses in collaboration with the Centre for Palliative Care Research and Education (CPCRE) and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

LIFE EDUCATION
The demand for Karuna’s unique Life Education courses continued to grow during the year. In response to this demand Karuna offered ten courses, attracting over 150 participants to the program. The most popular courses are Introduction to Buddhism, Open Heart Peaceful Mind and What Happens When We Die.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31	EC

Karuna Hospice Services