|
The Hospice Counsellor and Bereavement Team support patients, carers and
their families before and after death. They provide a caring, listening ear to
people of all ages.
Lyndon
Roach,
Bereavement Services Manager
 �I find it
rewarding to work alongside families, helping them to find ways to cope with
the emotional fall-out of living with cancer. I support the parents as they try
to find ways of facing death and help the young adults / teenagers come to terms with it - I am
often involved in advocacy work, helping to break the news to a child when a
parent finds it too painful.
I feel
very strongly that we need to help children to find a way to say goodbye, to
give them a voice and to encourage them to tell their own story of grief. With
children it is important to find different ways of communicating and I use
memory boxes, puppets and encourage them to draw pictures to help them express
how they are feeling.
On a
typical day, I get referrals from nurses and doctors and I then spend a lot of
time talking with the families about the difficulties they are facing. Parents
phone with questions about their children - they often want to know how best to
explain something that has happened. I have to be very organised, making
appointments to see children in school, fitting in with families to visit them
at home - in-between visits from medical staff, social services and other
family members.
It can be
very intense but I make sure that I take time to relax. I love being outdoors,
and in my spare time I help to manage a deer herd on the Mendips. This involves
maintaining the countryside and looking after the wildlife.�
Jacqui Rosewell
Bereavement Services Volunteer
Jacqui lives in Blackford and has been volunteering as a
Bereavement Visitor for 12 months, following initial Volunteer Induction
training and specialist bereavement training provided by Weston Hospicecare.
She visits the family and carers of Hospice patients in their homes.
�I think the most
important thing for people who are coping with a bereavement to know is that
there is someone to listen and to help them to vocalise their feelings. There
may be things that have occurred that they could find difficult to talk to
their family about and the Bereavement Visitors are approachable and available
to listen in complete confidence.
People talk about
the loss of their loved one. Very often with a Hospice patient it will have been
a long illness and clients will talk about how they felt during this time and
within the relationship. Initially we talk very much about how they are not
adjusting to the loss of a loved one.
I have personal
experience of bereavement. My dad died very suddenly and then my Mum had cancer
- she had hospice care in Cornwall. I was also a nurse in the Oncology Unit in
Bristol. But I became a volunteer because I wanted to give something back for
all of the care and support that I have had during my experiences.
It is rewarding to
give time to support to someone, helping them to come through the whole
experience of bereavement. And I would like people to know that the end of the
day there is someone who is available to help them through their grief - they
are not on their own.�
|