Dorothy House Hospice Care

Today marks the start of Social Work Week, an initiative created by Social Work England to encourage national conversation on the complex and diverse profession of social work. Our social workers are able to support with many areas of life that having a palliative care diagnosis can impact on, as well as leading on safeguarding issues within the organisation. Dorothy House is committed to safeguarding every adult and child who uses our services. We work in an open and transparent way and encourage staff, volunteers, patients and families to raise any concerns about wellbeing. Senior Social Worker Jo is our Safeguarding, Mental Capacity Act and DoLS Lead, a varied role in which she works to ensure best practice in these areas for all professionals at the Hospice, ensuring that training is up to date. #SocialWorkWeek #Safeguarding #HealthAndSocialCare

It's World Sleep Day! Did you know that one of the areas we cover on our Information Hub is sleep hygiene? Packed with top tips on small changes you can make to your routine, it's one of the many information sheets we have available to patients, families, carers and healthcare professionals on our website - and you can access them for free! Check out the full range of symptom control resources here: https://loom.ly/qX0OkUU #WorldSleepDay #SymptomControl #PalliativeCare

If you have some spare time on your hands and want to develop your skills, meet new people, or simply do something to give back, why not join our incredible team of volunteers? We have roles for everyone, from supporting our teams at the Hospice in Winsley to supporting patients and families out in our community - here's a few of our latest vacancies! Want to browse the full list? Check out our Volunteering page to find your perfect match: https://loom.ly/HjCPGpw #VolunteerRoles #CharityVolunteering #GiveBack #HospiceCharity

It’s time for the big reveal! After a lot of number crunching, we’re excited to reveal that the Bath City Zipline has raised a phenomenal £91,000! Dorothy House’s mission is to ensure that everyone has access to outstanding palliative and end of life care, and this mission cannot be achieved without the support of the local community. Bringing innovative fundraising events such as the Bath City Zipline to our community is vital to ensure we can be here for more families in need. We are facing huge adversity – rising costs, a National Insurance hike, as well as stagnant government funding which only covers 20% of our total costs. Over the past three years, running the Hospice has risen from £46,000 a day to £52,000 a day. Despite our best fundraising efforts and innovation, this has all combined to leave us with a critical funding shortfall. We’re over the moon that this one-of-a-kind event has raised such an incredible amount, and at a time where the support of our community is more important than ever, we are so grateful to everyone who got involved. From all of us at Dorothy House, thank you! Head over to the news section of our website where you can view our full round-up of the day! #BathEvents #FundraisingChallenge #HospiceCare

Will you stand with Dorothy House in the face of adversity? Together, if we act now, we can protect our vital core services into the future, ensuring that those facing death can continue to do so with the support of our community’s only adult hospice. Show your support by downloading our #TogetherInAdversity poster via our website and displaying it in your window at home or at work. Stand with us and help ensure that no one in our community faces death alone. Learn more: https://loom.ly/EWKySZI #FundHospiceCare #HospiceFundingCrisis #SupportHospices

Thank you so much to everyone who joined us on Saturday for the Men’s Walk to Support! The sun was shining and spirits were high with over 500 men walking to support the work of Dorothy House. We’re still adding up the funds raised from the event, but in the meantime we have a big list of thank-yous to share, so here goes! Thank you to Devizes Rotary for fuelling our walkers with bacon sandwiches at the start of the event, and to Everyone’s Brew for providing the drinks. Thank you to our lovely medics from My Skills for Life Ltd who were on hand to keep our walkers safe and well throughout the event, and to Burger Bus and Go Greek for providing the delicious food after the walk. We’d also like to thank the team at Bath Pavilion for welcoming us back for another year, and to our raffle prize providers, Lilley's Cider and Wiltshire Outdoor Learning Team. And of course, a big thank you to all the incredible volunteers who helped to make the event happen - from supporting at registration to marshalling along the route - we could not have done it without your support! All that’s left to say is stay tuned for the big reveal of this year’s total! #MensWalkToSupport #MenSupportingMen #BathEvents

The Coffee Connection is our open community group, offered to anyone affected by life-limiting illness or associated bereavement. All sessions are free to attend and there’s no need to book ahead. Groups run in Frome and Chippenham (co-hosted with We Hear You), Keynsham, and here at the Hospice in Winsley. For those unable to attend in-person sessions, we also run an online session every Monday at 10am via Zoom. For full details on all our community groups, please visit our website. #SupportGroups #WiltshireUK #OpenCommunity

“We’ve got to have discussions about everything with regard to death, in the round. We’ve got to talk about hospice care and how it’s funded, we’ve got to talk about the extent to which its right and feasible that people die at home, we’ve got to talk about assisted dying.” Listen to BBC Radio 4’s Justin Webb talking to Dorothy House Hospice Care about the importance of open discussion around death and dying, so people can make informed decisions about the end of life. Watch the whole interview here: https://ow.ly/JvYg50VcuTH

Earlier this week we had the pleasure to attend a celebration in honour of the incredible members of the Royal Marines Band Service and their fundraising efforts in the #26ForSoph Challenge, a campaign launched in support of Musician Sophie Ward, who is currently living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) after being diagnosed at just 26 years old. You may remember back in June, we were honoured to welcome the Royal Marines Band to the Hospice where they put on a special performance for Sophie, who was staying on our Inpatient Unit, and her husband, Lance Corporal Richard Ward. Shortly after their visit, Sophie's colleagues in the Royal Marines Band Service launched a campaign in her name, #26ForSoph, raising funds for The Royal Marines Charity (RMA), Dorothy House Hospice Care, and the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association - three charities which have been providing support to Sophie and her family. The campaign has involved various members of the band, as well as Sophie's friends and family completing a challenge of 26 'somethings,' chosen as Sophie received her diagnosis at the age of 26. The challenges so far have included walking 26,000 steps a day for 26 days straight, a team 26 hour run, a 26 hour crochet-thon and lots more, Amazingly, 26 For Soph recently hit the fundraising milestone of £100,000, which is to be split 70:15:15 between the three charities. In an inspirational day of unity and support, the Royal Marines Band Service put on a special performance to celebrate the achievements of everyone involved in the campaign. Our Director of Marketing and Engagement, James Byron, attended the event where Dorothy House was presented with a cheque for £13,212.60. A big thank you from all of us at Dorothy House to everyone who has been involved in the 26 For Soph campaign - we have loved keeping up with everyone's challenges and we're incredibly grateful for the ongoing support 💕 #TogetherInAdversity #FundraisingChallenge #HospiceCharity #MNDAwareness

Retail outlets are vital to the hospice sector, generating income nearly equivalent to that of the NHS main Contracts for some organisations. Recently, we chatted with Melanie Barber, Digital Systems Transformation Partner, to discover the impact and advantages Dorothy House Hospice Care is witnessing after adopting Radar Healthcare’s Audits module to enhance their retail processes. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eTfqs-EY #RHPartnerships #RHProud #Hospice #RetailSector