Midlands area ‘needs bereavement service'
There is a strong need for a bereavement service in the midlands to provide support to relatives after the death of a loved one, Dr Pauline Kane, the palliative care consultant for Longford/Westmeath has told members of the North Westmeath Hospice.
“I’m very conscious of that – and I believe in palliative care we just don’t want that the patient dies and then we leave. Clinical nurse specialists strive to support families – but they’re being pulled to look after living patients.
“So we would like a bereavement service, a suite of counsellors,” Dr Kane told a meeting last Thursday evening.
In an ideal world, she said, the palliative care service in Longford Westmeath would also have a second social worker, an occupational therapist, a dietician and a speech therapist.
At present the team comprises Dr Kane, together with four palliative clinical nurse specialists, a clinical nurse manager, a social worker and a physiotherapist.
Dr Kane said her hope is that within the coming months, an outpatient facility can be established in Mullingar, and that within 2-3 years, a therapeutic day centre can be established that would offer 6-8-week programmes for people with chronic conditions that would provide them with goals that would lead to planned outcomes.
“They have access – ideally – to a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, complementary therapy, group therapy, music and art therapy – and the opportunity for advance care planning so that we can focus on improving their quality of life and supporting them in their illness.”
Dr Kane acknowledged that the in-patient unit (IPU) that was to be built in Tullamore to serve the needs of the midland counties hospice appears to be on ice.
“Why we don’t have an inpatient unit in the midlands per se, we have two Level 2 palliative care beds in the St Camillus nursing care centre in Killucan, so there you have access to nurses who have palliative care experience and we would admit patients to those beds for symptom control, for respite and for end of life care. We would find that a very good resource,” she said.
However, she said, she is anxious to see two further hospice beds added to the existing complement of two in place at the ‘Ciuin’ hospice suite at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Mullingar.
“If we’re not going to get an IPU then we definitely need more beds. As our population becomes older, we will have more chronic conditions and there’s going to be more and more need for people to be able to access medical interventions and medical treatments in hospitals and I suppose that is something I would be looking at – using those more and more.
“We can bring people in, and start the treatments and they can go back home.
“We can also bring people in for symptom control and complex end of life care.”
Dr Kane said the service has just begun a programme of palliative care education for the nursing homes. During 2018, she told the meeting, there were 1,150 referrals to the Longford Westmeath palliative care team and all new referrals are seen within seven days.
“From a community palliative care perspective I feel fortunate in that I have come to a community palliative care team that are very strong, that meet all of the criteria that are set nationally. The key performance indicators – they are already meeting them,” she said.