HOSPICE needs our help now

The cornerstone of care for many Kiwi families in their time of need, the service is in need of a dose of love itself to carry on giving

- Donna Fleming

The word “grateful” crops up a lot when Catherine Wilson talks about the care her mother received from hospice when she was dying of cancer.

“I can’t thank them enough,” she says. “They made an awful time a little bit easier for everybody.” Catherine particularly appreciated the hospice nurses who visited her mum Anne at home and the volunteer drivers who took her to medical appointments when family members were unavailable. She's also very thankful that her mum could have regular sessions with a hospice counsellor, which helped her to deal with the emotional turmoil she was going through.

“Mum went from having a couple of seemingly minor symptoms to finding out she had stage four cancer, so it was a huge shock,” she tells. “Talking to a professional really helped her to come to terms with what was happening. She didn’t want to burden us with a lot of her worries, but she could open up to her counsellor.” Several family members also had sessions with the hospice counsellor, both before and after Anne died, and it helped with their grief, says Catherine.

“I didn’t realise counselling was an option — we were very grateful for it.” Counselling is just one of the many services offered by hospices in New Zealand, and like the rest of the help they provide, it’s free. But hospices are struggling financially and some may have to cut back on nonclinical services, like counselling.

Wayne Naylor, the chief executive of Hospice New Zealand, says some hospices could even close if they don’t get more government funding. “Without fair and sustainable funding, hospices and the critical services they provide are at risk of disappearing,” says Wayne. “We need to have hard conversations about future funding, particularly as the demand for hospice care continues to rise as our population grows older and lives for longer.”