Community Care Unit

Formerly known as day services or day care, it is a place where patients can attend who have a progressive or life-limiting illness, requiring input from several of our professionals.

It is to support people with symptom control issues, provide rehabilitation and social opportunities in an environment that is friendly and relaxed.

If a patient is already known to the hospice, they can discuss this with a member of the team at their next appointment or via the OneCall number on 0800 5567 0111 and you can discuss this with a member of the team.

Alternatively, patients can complete a self-referral form online by visiting our website page here.

Health care professional can refer by visiting our website page here.

For Great Yarmouth and Waveney, please refer here.

Each referral will be assessed by the team for suitability. A team member may want to discuss this further with you to ensure that this service is best placed to meet your needs. We may also work with other services in the local area so that your personal goals can be met.

To attend on a given day at one of our Community Care Unit locations where you will have pre-booked appointments with the professionals you would benefit from seeing.

You may wish to spend time relaxing, socialising or to make use of what we have on offer e.g. internet, library. 

Please bring with you what you require for the length of time you are with us. For example, medications, water and mobile phone. If you have a live in carer or a personal care assistant, you may find it helpful to bring them with you.

This is dependent on the location of the unit.

In Ipswich:

• We are open between 9am and 4pm Wednesday and Thursdays and from 9am to 3pm on Tuesdays. Staff to support your personal care needs will be available from 9am – 4pm each day.

In Great Yarmouth and Waveney:

• We are open between 10am and 4pm.

There will be some light refreshments and beverages available. You are also welcome to bring your own.

This will depend on when each professional will need to see you. Some people may come weekly to begin with and then may only need a review six months later. Some people may only need to be seen twice a month. This will be discussed with you and will be dependent on your own therapy goals.

We plan to have bookable appointments available for our hairdressers, complementary therapy and beauty treatments for a small additional fee. Please note, that this will not be available in the initial periods while the service is being developed.

At your initial assessment, your care needs and goals will be discussed. The hospice Community Care Unit offers a social element to our services, however if it is identified that you and/or your carer would benefit from respite, we will work with you to explore services in the community available to help you meet this need.

This will be discussed as part of our triage process. Each location will have on site healthcare assistants who are there to assist with some activities to support your comfort.

Each of our sites provides free parking.

Yes, we can provide you with the contact details should you need to organise ambulance transport.

As well as reading this page, you can call our Community Care Unit team. For Ipswich, call directly on 01473 707014 (Tuesday to Friday 9am – 5pm). For Great Yarmouth and Waveney, please call our OneCall team: 0800 567 0111.