Bereavement Services

Patient and Family Services comprises of the social work team, bereavement support volunteers, the Chaplain and chapliancy volunteers, occupational therapy and the complementary and alternative medicine team. Help is given in many ways and our aim is to provide practical, social, emotional and spiritual support to our patients and their carers.

Bereavement Support - Emotional and Spiritual Support - Practical Support - Financial Support - The Chaplaincy

Bereavement Support

At St Luke’s Hospice we are committed to offering access to Bereavement Support for the families and carers of all those who have benefited from our services.

A leaflet on Grief, Loss and Change is available for families and carers and this contains a great deal of helpful information including advice on looking after someone in the last days of their life and on coping with the emotional issues surrounding illness and bereavement. There is also a section with useful telephone numbers and sources of support.

All those working for St Luke’s Hospice, whether at the Hospice in-patient unit, in the Hospital at Derriford or in the community, will offer a listening ear to families and carers at the time of their losing a loved one.

For some families and individuals, Bereavement Counselling can offer the opportunity to talk in complete confidence and in depth about their own unique experience of grief and the consequences of their loss. Counselling sessions can take place on a regular basis if necessary.

The work of the Patient and Family Services Team, which headed up by Jutta Widlake, is supported by Social Care Workers and trained Bereavement Support Volunteers. Support can be given to people in their own homes, at St Luke’s Hospice at Turnchapel or St Luke’s Services at Pearn House near Plymouth City Centre.

There is also an opportunity to attend an informal social group and this can be accessed through one of our social care members of staff.

At St Luke’s we recognise that each individual’s experience of bereavement is unique. The services we offer are continuously reviewed and developed in order that we may continue to meet the varied and ever changing needs of bereaved families and carers in the most appropriate ways.

The staff are qualified counsellors, and give emotional support to patients and their families as they wrestle with the implications of the patient's illness. The department runs a number of support services aimed at meeting the varied needs of the families and friends of those we have cared for, with particular input for children. Individual counselling is offered along with two monthly support meetings for the recently bereaved.

St Luke's has a contract with Plymouth Social Services which enables us to assess the needs of patients and their carers and provide the services needed. This can include accessing home care services and care in nursing homes. Care Management for Plymouth Social Services means that we undertake the full range of social work duties, including purchasing services from within social services and also from private agencies (for home care, nursing homes etc). We also then remain responsible for the patient's care package for eight weeks, after which we then hand over to the patient's local social services and a new social worker assumes the role of care manager.

With regard to Devon we do not have any care management responsibilities. We do however carry out assessments on their behalf and advise them as to what services a patient may need. They then take this into account when arranging a care package. Our role here is advisory as we do not have access to their budget and/or services. In these cases, as with Cornwall or any other authority a local social worker takes responsibility for the patient from day of discharge.

The department runs two funds to provide practical financial help where possible, one for patients and one to benefit children. They are also able to assist in providing appropriate furniture and equipment in patient's homes.

The Chaplaincy at St Luke’s Hospice exists to help people address their spiritual and religious needs in the light of illness and death. Religious needs are those which are usually addressed via the standard media of prayer and worship, the things that people do in Church or Chapel.

Spiritual needs are far broader and less well defined, and it is the task of the Chaplain, alongside the other members of the St. Luke’s team, to enable people to continue their spiritual lives, or explore their spiritual lives, both during their time in the Hospice, and at home.

Much of the Chaplain’s time is spent simply listening to the stories that people bring with them, helping them to celebrate their lives, and feel that they still have something to contribute to others. Sometimes people need help in resolving relationship conflicts; sometimes they simply want to ensure that whatever time is left is spent in celebration. Couples sometimes ask to renew their vows to one another; sometimes people rediscover the spiritual discipline of prayer, or of communion.

The Hospice has a Chapel, used nearly every day for services, and by patients, family and friends as a place of peace, prayer and quiet.

St. Luke’s is committed to the care of family and friends as well, and so the Chaplain’s time is spent with them as well as with patients. Some home visits are conducted, often at the request of the Community Palliative Speciallist Nursing team, and sometimes as a follow up to a stay in the in-patient unit, or a conversation in the day Hospice.

The Chaplaincy team has recently been expanded, with the help of volunteers, in order to bring different skills, experience and perceptions of faith into the spiritual care we offer, to patients, families, friends and staff. The Chaplain himself, Rev. Trevor Smith, is a full time member of staff, contributing to the wider life of the Hospice, and available most days on site. Please ask the staff on the Reception desk to contact him if you would like to meet him, if you can’t find him.