The wonderful staff put you at ease very quickly.Day care patient

All quotations are used with permission.

More and more people are choosing to be cared for at home and our specialist community teams help people to achieve their wish.

Current community services include:

• the Salford and Trafford Hospice@Home teams
• the community specialist palliative care team (Salford)
• the outreach complementary therapy service (Central Manchester)

Hospice@Home teams

Caring for someone at home is a full-time job with very little time off and this can place both physical and emotional strain on families and carers.

St Ann’s Hospice has dedicated qualified nurses and experienced nursing assistants who provide care to any person with palliative care needs in their own home. The team of nurses support patients, families and carers by offering nursing care and support helping to reduce the strain of coping with the situation. They work in partnership with district nurses, specialist palliative care nurses and other community services.

How to access the service

Patients and/or carers can ask their doctor, district nurse or specialist palliative care nurse to contact the respite team. The team leader or one of the qualified nurses will need to visit the patient at home to carry out an assessment and to arrange the care required. Any care provided will be reassessed at regular intervals.

You can get more information by discussing your needs with your district nurse, specialist palliative care nurse or doctor or by contacting the Hospice@Home team on 0161 702 5405.

Community specialist palliative care nurse team (Salford)

Our community specialist palliative care team in Salford is a specialist resource working with your GP and district nurse team. As part of a patient’s care the specialist nurse may be asked to undertake an assessment, and, if needed, will deliver ongoing support either to the patient or to the GP and district nurse team. Not all patients will need the support of a specialist nurse as GPs and district nurses are trained to deliver high quality palliative care.

Access to this service may be at the point of diagnosis, during treatment, following treatment, a time of disease recurrence or at any other key point in the patient’s illness.

How to access the service

Referrals can be made by any health and social care professional and can also be started by the patient, family or carer (in consultation with relevant health and social care professionals). Contact the team (Monday to Friday 9:30am – 4:30pm) on 0161 702 8181 if you would like to talk about a referral.

Outreach complementary therapies service (central and parts of North Manchester only)

The service is available to anyone who has a life threatening or chronic illness, where their symptoms make it difficult for them to leave their home or to travel to a centre where they could receive a complementary therapy. Some patients may not want to visit St Ann’s Hospice or the Neil Cliffe Centre, because they are too ill, for cultural reasons or because they find travelling difficult. The service is not just for cancer patients, we can help to support patients who have illnesses such as strokes, heart problems, multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease. The service is also open to the patient’s principle carer.

The complementary therapies offered are aromatherapy, therapeutic massage, reflexology and reiki.

How to access the service

If you think that complementary therapy could help you, then ask a health care worker to refer you to the service. A health care worker will usually be your district nurse or Macmillan nurse, your GP or your case manager. Other health care professionals such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists and hospital staff can also refer you to the service. They will contact the Service Co-ordinator at The Neil Cliffe Centre who will telephone you and arrange a convenient time for a therapist to visit you at home. The therapist will then arrange future visits with you on an individual basis.

For more information please contact the Neil Cliffe Centre on 0161 291 2912.