Emotional and spiritual support

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Emotional support is available for adults, children, families and carers who have been referred to the hospice.

The team are available weekdays from 9am to 4pm to discuss any queries relating to referrals and advice on accessing support services.

Please call the team directly on 01473 707999.

Coping with illness, loss and change is not easy for anyone. We can help patients and families with the practical and emotional aspects of facing life with an illness, life challenges and bereavement.

A range of services can be accessed through our emotional support team:

• Telephone advice and enquiries 01473 707999
• Counselling
• Practical support
• Art therapy
• Support groups
• Children’s specialist support

Our highly skilled team is able to:

• Support both patients and families with their emotional, spiritual and social needs
• Offer counselling
• Give information and advice regarding welfare benefits
• Offer advice on support groups available

We work with families as a group to:

• Enable couples and families to talk about what they are facing and gain support from one another
• Help families to make important decisions
• Prepare children, in partnership with their parents, for loss or support with their bereavement
• Negotiate and liaise with teachers and employers

Children and young people

The team and our specialist children’s workers/counsellors are highly trained at supporting children and young adults.

The illness or death of a close family member can be a painful and even lonely experience for a child or young person. It can be hard to talk with parents or close relatives who are upset, and friends may be reluctant because they do not know what to say.

Parents can be supported when difficult information needs to be shared with children. Advice and resources are available to both parents and children to help families talk about what they are all facing. Individual work with children and young people can also be offered.

Art therapy and music therapy

People often find expressing themselves through art and music is easier than talking. We are able to offer art and music therapy to patients and relatives.

Working creatively can prove deeply rewarding often, when it is least expected. Many feelings, difficult or even impossible to express in words, can find release through picture making or sculpture: whether of shock, fear, anger, loss or sadness; and equally of hope, faith, gratitude, courage, love and joy.

Art therapy sessions take place in the art therapy room or at a patient's bedside. Alternatively, the art therapist may be able to visit a patient at home.

Music therapy is about the use of music to help and support people. It has been proven to be very effective in difficult situations when all other forms of communication have failed.

The aims of music therapy may include increasing communication and expression, providing emotional release, relaxation and comfort.

Our music therapists have a range of accessible instruments including a piano, xylophone, drum kit, guitar and various percussion instruments which are available for patients and families to use.

Our music therapists are able to work in a range of ways including providing live music as relaxation, improvising music with or for the patient, song writing, choosing and listening to music with the patient, life review through music and making CDs.

Our music therapists can provide individual or group sessions in a variety of settings such as the the patient's bedside or in a family member's home.