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THE COUNSELLING AND SOCIAL WORK TEAM
The Counselling
and Social Work Department has a very diverse range of activities, which
brings us into contact with patients and their carers, families and friends
as well as staff and volunteers. The core of our work is counselling
patients and their relatives or friends and carers face-to-face, by
telephone, and at the newly established monthly ‘Share and Care’ Carers
Support Group. We also work with patients and their carers on the wards, in
the community, and in Day Care on both a practical and psychological level.
We organise the monthly Thanksgiving services and the bereavement groups; we
supervise volunteer Counsellors and offer staff support and train volunteers
and staff. We also ensure that we establish and maintain important links
with other voluntary, statutory, and private sector services within the
community to ensure the best possible support for patients and carers.
We have had a
very busy year. Annie Warburton-Stephens joined as a Social Worker in
September 2002, so we now have a department of four staff. The work of the
Department is divided with Viv Picken and Joanna Fenning undertaking
counselling and Anne Mitford and Annie Warburton-Stephens undertaking Social
Work.
The Bereavement
Team, managed by Anne and Joanna, has welcomed eight new volunteer
Counsellors who completed their training in April following the departure
from the team of several long serving Counsellors. This year the Team has
extended its support to 87 new families and carers and we continue to
support many others for as long as we are needed. Without the
professionalism, dedication and loyalty of our volunteers the department
would not be able to offer such complete and reliable support, and this is
an opportunity to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to those
individuals who make such a dedicated and caring service possible.
The Social Work
team supports an average of 13 new patients a month. As one in three Hospice
patients are discharged, much of this work consists of planning to enable
patients to return from the Hospice back to their own homes or, if
necessary, to Nursing Homes. Many patients return home with care packages;
liaison and negotiation with Hampshire and Surrey Social Services and
Primary Care Trusts continues in order to secure Social Services and Health
funding where appropriate for patients.
Anne Mitford –
Social Worker
Joanna Fenning – Counsellor
Viv Picken – Counsellor
Annie Warburton-Stephens – Social Worker
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“Every time we
asked to talk, you stopped in your tracks and listened. We know we would not
have had this support anywhere else. You allowed us to be very involved
mother’s care which allowed us to feel positive about her last few days as
she was very afraid of being alone.” |
A quiet corner of the garden |
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