For patients
Contact with us starts with a referral, which may come from your GP or from other health professionals who may be involved with you. You can also contact us direct to find out whether we can offer you the right kind of support.
Following a referral, we may suggest an initial appointment for assessment with one of the nursing team. This may be arranged at your home or at the Hospice. During this meeting, you and your carer will be able to discuss how we can help.
Day Therapy, hospice outpatient visits or ad-hoc home support may then be arranged according to your individual needs.
Day Therapy
Our Day Therapy service aims to provide short term assessment and support for people requiring specialist palliative care. This is to enable patients and their families to learn skills to manage their illness and to maintain or improve function and quality of life.
The Day Therapy service is suitable for patients adjusting to a new diagnosis of a life limiting illness, and patients with changing, unstable or deteriorating conditions.
We offer a multi-professional approach, focussing on complex physical, emotional, spiritual, social and practical issues. Full and active involvement of our patinents and their carers is encouraged.
Our service includes:
- Participation in our Living Well Group - a six-week introductory course of sessions providing information and advice to enable people to adjust to changing health needs
- An opportunity to learn new skills, develop coping strategies and regain confidence
- Advice and practical help in managing symptoms in order to maximise quality of life and independence
- Emotional, psychological and spiritual support
- Assessment of function
- Relaxation
- Fatigue, stress, anxiety and breathlessness management
- Creative craft and diversional therapies aimed at promoting an enjoyable sense of achievement
- Complementary therapists who offer a range of treatments including massage, reflexology, Indian head massage and M technique, amongst other treatments.
Day Therapy can also include an assisted bath using our specialised equipment. The social aspect is important too, and where possible you will be invited to join other patients to enjoy a cooked lunch, which will be chosen to take account of your dietary needs.
We may be able to arrange transport to and from Day Therapy sessions, and we have specially adapted vehicles available to accommodate the needs of wheelchair users, including users of electrically powered wheelchairs.
Hospice at Home
We operate with Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust and Marie Curie Cancer Care, as one of the key partners in the Hospice At Home service commissioned by West Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group as part of its palliative care strategy.
Referrals to the Hospice at Home service are made through the Coordination Centre at the St James Clinic, King’s Lynn, tel. 01553 668529 .
Outpatient care
After we have assessed your needs, we may recommend a planned series of outpatient visits to the Hospice. Each visit may involve one or more sessions of therapy.
We provide a range of therapies for out patients, according to their needs. These may include physiotherapy, complementary therapy, and psychological and spiritual support.
We may be able to arrange transport to and from an outpatient appointment at the Hospice if you require it.
Information on your illness and the services available to you
We have a library of information pamphlets covering many conditions, and our clinical staff will discuss any of these with you if you wish.
We can also help you to find and contact other, more specialised sources of information.
Where we identify other services which might be helpful to you we will do what we can to help you access these.
