The importance of Dying Matters Awareness Week at St Ann’s Hospice

Dying Matters Awareness Week takes place from 6th-12th May and this year HospiceUK are focusing on the language that we use and the conversations we have around death and dying. Particularly, the way that healthcare professionals, patients, their carers and families talk about this.

I’ve worked at St Ann’s Hospice for 24 years, the first 15 of these being on the inpatient unit, and now working in our Being You centre. The Being You Centre is part of our outpatient section of the hospice, and our patients can access our services, therapies and sessions when needed.

We know there is a lot of fear around death and dying, which is why we try to open this conversation to our patients and their families when they’re ready. We all worry about similar aspects of dying; if it’s going to be painful, whether you’ll be on your own or with family, whether there will be the right support in place for you – which is why it’s important to have these conversations.

We often facilitate these conversations when patients have come to our Being You Centre and we know how much of a load it takes off each person’s shoulders. When someone mentions the word hospice to anyone, whether that’s a hospice patient or someone with no connection, they immediately think that that person has come to die. However, that is a big misconception that we want to dispel.

Often our patients at the Being You Centre are referred to us by their Macmillan nurse, GP or they can self-refer through our website. We find that because of the stigma around hospices, people are reluctant at first to come in. However, once they’ve seen a friendly face and understand our hospice isn’t just a place that people come to die, they’re very appreciative of the support we can give them.

We always want to see patients early in their journey, so that we can provide as much advice, guidance and support as we can throughout. This all begins with conversations around the future and for those with life-limiting illnesses who may still have months or years left, this is still important. Speaking to family and friends about this is also something we try to encourage, so that our patients can express their wishes and needs in a comfortable space.

At the Being You Centre we run a ‘Supporting You’ programme, which is six weeks long. One of the sessions focuses on future care planning, where we emphasise the importance of making plans and expressing wishes as early as we can. In addition, we also offer one-to-one sessions to our patients and their families to take these conversations further.

We know there is still a lot of work that needs to be done about removing the myths and stigma around hospices and how we care for people. Awareness weeks like this help to open up conversations around dying in a positive and safe way.

For more information on the services we provide at St Ann’s Hospice, please see our website at www.sah.org.uk/how-we-help/our-services/.