Community Nursing
Many people want to stay at home when they are unwell and our specialist Hospice Community Nursing Team offer support and advice in your own home, at times to suit you and when you need it most.
Our team are here to support our patients, but also their loved ones, because we know that managing a life-limiting illness can be challenging. We support the role of your GP and our expert team can help you with symptoms you may have, such as pain, nausea, breathlessness and other difficult symptoms.
We can help you plan and record your preferences for your future care and wishes at end of life. We work closely with your GP and other services to ensure the best possible care and support for you is in place. We can support you in person, on the phone or with video calls, depending on your needs.
We don’t just offer medical support, our services are designed to offer practical and wellbeing support too. We work closely with our Supportive Care Services to make sure you are signposted to the correct support on offer.
Our rehab therapy team works with you to improve your quality of life, providing exercises, education and, where necessary, equipment such as walking aids. This service aims to increase mobility confidence, help patients to do the activities of daily living and adapt to their conditions, help control symptoms such as pain and breathlessness and support patients to return home after a stay on our inpatient unit.
Our Welfare Advice service can help with any practical issues, such as applying for grants and benefits, financial planning, debt advice, housing and transport issues (for instance getting a blue disability parking badge). We can help with any pension changes and life insurance or critical illness cover and ‘death in service’ where this is required.
Our social worker is a key member of the hospice team and can work with other agencies to help you explore options and make choices about your care and support, according to your needs and what matters most to you. Our social worker can support you with your practical, social and emotional needs and is available to your family and friends as well. This might include facilitating challenging conversations, how to communicate with your children or young relatives, plans for guardianship and tackling the effects of isolation.
If you, someone who knows you or another healthcare provider feels you may benefit from input from our Hospice Community Team, please complete the appropriate referral route and we will endeavour to make contact and discuss options available.
We provide specialist care, 24 hours per day at our Inpatient Unit which has lovely views of our beautiful grounds overlooking the Sussex countryside.
Many people have a short stay in our Hospice to help reduce the effects of difficult symptoms, such as pain or breathlessness, or when they are approaching the end of their life. Typically people stay with us for a week or two; if your condition stabilises we will support you to return home or to another care facility, if required.
All food is freshly prepared and cooked in our kitchens for patients and is available to purchase for those visiting. Family members and friends are welcome to visit anytime and we can accommodate those who wish to stay with the patient as they approach the end of their life.
Living with a life-limiting illness can be challenging and prevent you from doing the things that matter most to you. Our goal is to help you to live well. The team at St Peter & St James Hospice will help you to:
- Focus on what Living Well means to you,
- Identify your concerns and priorities,
- Find ways to do the things that matter most to you.
For more information about our Living Well Centre and the activities and sessions available please click the button below.
Our counselling service provides a confidential space with a trained professional to help you make sense of, and adjust to life, at a challenging time. Counselling can help you to improve your quality of life, feel more in control, understand your choices and improve your relationships.
We offer 12 sessions, each 50 minutes long, focusing on the impact of your diagnosis and the effects it has had on you and those close to you. Our counselling service can be provided in your own home, at the hospice, face to face, via phone or online.
When living with a life-limiting illness, people often reflect on their life experiences and questions can arise. You might wonder what your life has been about, what matters most to you, what kind of funeral you would like, or what will happen next.
Our spiritual care team can help you make sense of these questions or discuss confidentially anything you feel you need to. If you are of faith, we can ask our local community faith leaders to support you. We have a quiet, reflective space called The Sanctuary at the Hospice which you are very welcome to visit.
Our Welfare Advice service provides guidance and signposting to support with practical matters such as grants and benefits applications, financial planning, debt advice, and housing and transport issues (including Blue Badge applications). We can also guide people towards appropriate support for pension changes, life insurance or critical illness cover, and ‘death in service’ arrangements.
Where further specialist support is needed, we can link people to trusted organisations for areas such as will-writing and funeral planning.
Our social worker is a key member of the hospice team and can work with other agencies to help you explore options and make choices about your care and support, according to your needs and what matters most to you.
Our social worker can support you with your practical, social and emotional needs and is available to your family and friends as well. This might include facilitating challenging conversations, how to communicate with your children or young relatives, plans for guardianship and tackling the effects of isolation.
When thinking about your life there may be a story or message you wish to share with those close to you. Our Hospice Biographers help to make digital recordings of your story or message, which is then transferred to several memory sticks. These are then given to you, so that you can give them to those close to you, at a time of your choosing.
We work with the charity, The Hospice Biographers, which provides specialised training to our volunteers. Our Hospice Biography volunteers record with care and sensitivity on a private, one-to-one basis, using professional recording equipment.
This service can include aromatherapy, massage and reflexology sessions. The therapist will discuss with you what treatment may be of benefit to you and adapt it to suit your needs. Alongside any medical treatment that you may be having, complementary therapies may help to ease a variety of symptoms.
Our physiotherapist works with you to improve your quality of life, providing exercises, education and, where necessary, equipment such as walking aids.
This service aims to:
- Increase your confidence in your mobility
- Help you to do the activities of daily living and adapt to your condition.
- Help control symptoms such as pain and breathlessness
- Support you to return home after a stay on our inpatient unit.