Anam Cara House Geelong is a community Hospice which provides day and overnight palliative respite and end of life care; we also have an equipment loan bank and a community outreach nurse. All our services are funded through donations and grants; we do not have a fee structure. We provide care to people with life limiting illness in the greater Geelong region. Our current site is in Geelong CBD, in a house that was built when dinosaurs roamed the area, for some people in the Northern suburbs of Geelong it is unobtainable due to transport costs. We are setting up a satellite service in Norlane; Norlane is an area were there is a large proportion of people who rely on government benefits; for people with a life limiting illness living in that area Geelong is too far away due to transport costs, even with half price taxi fares. We have a mini bus and would like to set up a local Norlane/ Corio bus run to assist people in accessing our services. Obviously we need to fuel this bus, which will be driven by a volunteer, and that is our need - money for fuel vouchers. Fossil fuel probably generated by the bones and waste of dinosaurs.
Palliative day respite allows the patient a chance to have a break from the sick role and the carer a break from the caring role. Carers can use this time for whatever they want or need to do knowing that a specialist palliative care registered nurse and specially trained palliative care volunteers are caring for their loved one. Having a regular break also assists the carer sustain the ongoing caring role. The patients are assessed and monitored by a nurse who will refer issues to the doctor and other services as required.
All our patients have a hand print done by one of our very talented volunteers who then finds out things in their life that are important/memorable and sets about finding trinkets and photos that represent these things. These are then mounted around the hand print and displayed, a photocopy is given to the family.
Thx