St Ann’s Hospice is a charity and a specialist provider of end of life care with two sites, one in Little Hulton, Salford and the other in Heald Green, Stockport. We provide specialist palliative care for people with cancer and non-cancer life-limiting illnesses, at all stages of their illness.
At St Ann’s we believe in a rehabilitative approach to palliative care. We believe in helping those at the end of their lives to live their lives to the highest quality possible. We are there to help patients with their life goals and we also are there to support their families along the way and through their grieving process, no matter how long that process might take. We aim to meet the unique physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of those with a life-limiting illness, and to help maintain their dignity with holistic support.
Patients’ wishes and goals
Earlier this year, St Ann’s Hospice won the End of Life Care Award at the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards. The hospice’s application focused on St Ann’s success in innovation by delivering a rehabilitative approach to palliative care. This approach focuses on patients’ wishes and goals and focuses on what is important to them as an individual.
These goals are as unique as any individual person. For one patient it might be the want to be able to walk again, a goal that may be difficult to achieve for someone who has been cared for in bed for a number of weeks. For another person, it might be about gaining the ability to walk to their favourite pub to have another taste of their favourite beer. For another, it might be about making it to spend another Christmas with their family. Whatever a patient’s goal, St Ann’s, along with the patient and their family, will strive to achieve it.
Last year, a goal of one of our patients was to make memories with her friends, as she knew she had limited time left with them. The whole multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses and therapists worked with her to plan an evening with her friends that she would remember. They decided to have a girly night in. Her friends came to the hospice, with her room being adapted into a Saturday night space. A bartender from The Griffin Pub in Heald Green came into the hospice. The bartender held a cocktail-making class and the patient and her friends had a brilliant evening. With everyone working together, we created a night that the person thoroughly enjoyed and achieved her goal of making memories.
What matters most
Goal setting is worked through between clinical staff and individuals to ensure there are steps taken to support what matters most at that point. Because no one goal is the same, the clinical staff spend time to understand specific needs, as these will shape the goals they choose to pursue. St Ann’s Hospice strives to keep this person-centred so that the people we work with are supported to address what is important to them.
Often, individuals can have a goal that seems unrealistic compared to their current situation, and functional skills. Staff members will speak to the person about ‘why’ they want to achieve this goal, to understand the reason behind this. A plan can then be put in place to see how a first step towards this goal can be achieved. In many instances, the goal is adapted to be appropriate to the person’s function at that time and broken down into achievable steps, and/or achieving these steps in a slightly different way.
We listen to our patients and families and are grateful for the feedback we receive through surveys and questionnaires to ensure we are providing holistic support that encompasses everything that is wanted and needed. The Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Scale tool is important for us to follow to ensure we are measuring the symptoms and concerns of our patients, to ensure we are providing the best care we can.
Collaborative efforts
St Ann’s is an integral part of the wider health and care system in Greater Manchester. At St Ann’s, we are proud to be part of the GM Hospices Providers Collaborative, which brings together representatives from seven adult hospices across Greater Manchester, East Cheshire Hospice, as well as children’s hospices Francis House and Derian House. The collaborative is committed to working with partners at all levels of the GM Integrated Care System and beyond to deliver high-quality and equitable specialist palliative and end of life care to the people of Greater Manchester, not just for today but also for future generations.
Through our collaborative efforts, we seek to establish and maintain standards of care that reflect the needs and preferences of our patients and families, while also taking into account the latest evidence-based practices and research. If incidents arise, we work with the necessary teams to investigate this and look into what the circumstances around this were, focusing on how to resolve this and minimise the chance of them occurring again. Our focus on equity means that we strive to ensure that all individuals, regardless of their background or circumstances, have access to the care they need to achieve the best possible outcomes.
Innovative approaches
Here at St Ann’s, we focus not just on our patients but recognise that it is also a difficult time for relatives, carers and friends and we provide support for them too. We recognise that providing specialist palliative and end of life care is a complex and challenging task, and we are committed to working together to develop innovative approaches that meet the evolving needs of our communities.
Our multidisciplinary team is there to support families, friends and carers when their loved one is being cared for by St Ann’s. This is often informal support that can be offered in any way the individual wishes. Our bereavement services are available to families whose loved ones have died, and we are also able to refer people to other services depending on their needs. Our Let’s Talk service allows everyone to talk to a trained team of counsellors and assistant practitioners who are there to support individuals.
We also hold annual Forget Me Not and Light Up a Life appeals that give families the opportunity to celebrate the life of a loved one by making a dedication to them. Families are also invited to attend one of the remembrance services that are held as part of each appeal, giving friends and family a space to reflect and remember their loved ones with others who also have a connection to our hospice. Our Light Up a Life Appeal for 2024 has already been launched. It is an appeal that is centred around the festive period. This year, in the first week of December we are hosting six different services, three in Manchester Cathedral, all dedicated to loved ones who are no longer with us.
By working together, from our rehabilitation team, our nursing team, our volunteers and our fundraisers, right through to our receptionists who are always around for a smile and a chat, we here at St Ann’s can continue to achieve goals that matter to the individual patient and support the families and friends through the difficult times they find themselves in.
Nominations for the Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards 2025 close on Friday 25th October. For more information, click here.
Emma Barclay is Head of Clinical Services at St Ann’s Hospice.
X: @StAnnsHospice Email: [email protected]