Pat McCarthy, manager of the Cancer, Older People and Advocacy service at Knowsley Pensioners Advocacy & Information Service (KPAIS) tells us about a recent visit to Willowbrook Hospice:
As part of our delivery of the Cancer, Older People and Advocacy project we have worked hard to get to know other services in our area and to develop some great working links.
As part of this work we were invited to visit Willowbrook Hospice. If you have a look at their website you can learn a lot more about the fabulous work that they do http://www.willowbrook.org.uk/
Myself and Val, who is our paid advocate, were able to attend this visit and it was so helpful to have an understanding of this great facility available in our area. We met with Jane Finnerty who is the outreach services manager and we had a tour from Margaret McConaghy the inpatient services manager.
The day we attended, an outreach session was underway with many people attending to access clinics, to take advantage of therapies and to socialise. There was lots of noise and laughter and we could see what a valuable space this is for people to be able to share their thoughts.
Margaret showed us around all of the hospice, a really beautiful with an overwhelming sense of comfort and peace. Val and I were able to share our information with leaflets and copies of Every Step of the Way to be shared with staff and patients.
In the future we will also be attending their educational team meetings to give further information of our advocacy provision and Jane now has a seat on our local cancer champions board, so it would seem that a lasting relationship has been built.
Pat McCarthy, KPAIS
Older People Living with Cancer 