Hospice receives six-figure boost to help care homes

Treetops Hospice has received £100,000 to help Derbyshire care homes support residents who are approaching the end of their life.

The two-year funding for the pioneering project has come from The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust.

The funding will enable Laura Slack and Faye Thrasivoulou, Treetops’ care home development and end-of-life care support nurses, to train care home staff to recognise the signs and symptoms when a resident’s health declines and understand how best to meet their final wishes.

The training is being made available to 15 residential care homes across Erewash during the two-year funding period.

Faye said: “Residential home residents are often admitted to hospital or transferred to a nursing home as their needs increase towards the end of their life.

“This can result in residents dying in unfamiliar surroundings. The resident may wish to die in the residential home where they may have lived for several years, as it is their home.

“The care home development nurses aim is to facilitate residents to die in their preferred place of care.

“We provide training to care homes that aims to empower staff to feel confident in having sensitive conversations with residents to identify and record their final wishes in advance.

“We provide practical training for teams, bespoke to each home.

“We’re training whole teams, from care staff to domestic staff, to recognise early on when a resident’s health starts to decline, and how to care for them. And we offer ongoing peer support.”

The residential homes are also able to call on the Treetops Hospice at Home and Roaming Nurse Service out-of-hours for clinical support when needed.

Long Eaton View is one of the first residential homes to receive the one-of-its-kind training and support model.

Registered manager Debbie Rhodes said: “Being able to provide extra support for our staff, especially the younger members of our team, has been brilliant. It has helped take away a lot of the fear of the unknown. Knowing that there’s a professional around is reassuring.

“The training has helped develop and refresh our skills. The education around talking about death and dying has led to more open conversations among residents and their families. It’s been very rewarding and we’re grateful for the training.”