I’m aware that I’ve not really told you much about Strathcarron Hospice itself, so I guess now’s as good a time as any! For the full picture, the Strathcarron website is excellent; there’s really far too much to the hospice for me to get across in my wee blog post. Instead, this is just my very general impression of what this very special place is all about:
I grew up in Cumbernauld and the hospice was (and still is) a popular choice for fundraising events in the local community (such as sponsored walks with the Brownies or sponsored silences in class). When I was in my early twenties, I moved from Glasgow to Stirling and Strathcarron was (and still is) a popular choice for fundraising events in the local community (such as a 10k road race or a Ladies Lunch). My mum was a District Nurse and cared for many patients in the community who'd also received different forms of care from Strathcarron. My mum’s retired now, but has been volunteering at Strathcarron for over 12 years.
So, 'Strathcarron Hospice' is a name that I’ve grown up with and a name that has always been very familiar to me. But, until I started volunteering there myself – when I was in my forties – I didn’t have a Scooby what Strathcarron was actually all about! I imagined it to be a depressing, slightly eerie place - like a hospital with its lights dimmed - where people simply went off quietly to to die. And I don’t imagine that I’m the only person who’s ever imagined that about their local hospice.
Well, nothing could be further from the truth. For a start, it looks nothing like a hospital. You walk through the front door - from the gorgeous grounds - to a beautifully decorated, modern reception area and are greeted by a cheery volunteer sitting behind the desk and an even cheerier ‘employed’ receptionist. And that kind of sets the scene for everything else about Strathcarron: the staff and volunteers are warm and welcoming; the physical surroundings are light and bright; the wards and single rooms – although all geared up for the best possible patient care with some similar equipment to that which you’d find in a hospital – are cosy and homely; the patients mostly wear their clothes and not their jammies; nobody wears a white coat; and it’s probably one of the friendliest places I’ve ever had the privilege of spending time in. It provides a positively enriching environment, not only for its patients but for their families, visitors, and the staff alike.
Strathcarron is a place where adults - of all ages - with life limiting illness (such as cancer, neurological disease, respiratory and heart conditions) go, but it’s certainly not a scary place and it’s definitely not a place where people only go to to die. In fact, over 40% of patients go home from the hospice after having benefited from the specialist support, in such things as pain control and emotional distress, that Strathcarron has to offer. And, the majority of Strathcarron’s patients are treated at home or in the community. The list of services the hospice provides is endless, and best delved into on the website. I think the main point I’d like to get across is that Strathcarron offers so much more to its local community than a caring, specialist environment for its patients. It reaches out to the families of those patients and caters for their needs – be that in helping them with practical or emotional issues – it also reaches out to clinicians and other caring professions outwith the hospice environment and educates them in a vast range of topics surrounding life-limiting illness, it reaches out to schools and educates staff about the special needs of some of their pupils who might have lost someone close to them, it reaches out to Universities and local hospitals and helps with research projects and palliative care training, and it reaches out and enhances the lives of hundreds of people in the local area who benefit from all that volunteering at Strathcarron has to offer.
As the website says: “ Hospice is not a place, it is a philosophy of care that values each individual..”. Giving value to people’s lives - no matter whether they’re being treated at the Lymphodoema clinic, receiving emotional or practical support from the Patient and Family Services team, being treated at home by one of the Clinical Nurse Specialists, attending the day care hospice for specialist treatment (or just for the banter with fellow patients), benefiting from one of the many complementary therapies on offer, having improved mobility after a session with the physiotherapist, being able to go home after help from the Occupational therapist or, indeed, receiving the gentlest of palliative care in the last few days of life – that’s really what Strathcarron’s all about; valuing people’s lives. No matter what stage those people are at in their life.
Ocht, there's so much more to it than that - but I think I'll leave it at that and encourage you to check out the website for lots more information. It really is an amazing place, and I had another great day there today.
It may sound like a bit of a cliche, the old volunteer's mantra; "I'm getting lots more out of this than I'm putting in", but it really is true! Today was a case in point for me when I handed over my first music player to a patient. After spending a good bit of time last Friday, listening to them chat about their favourite music, I'd loaded up the Walkman with a bucket-load of their special songs. It was so rewarding to see the smile that spread across the patient's face this morning when they pressed 'play' and heard their favourite Scottish fiddle music drifting out through their headphones. I know it sounds like such a simple thing, but it was another lovely moment where I was lucky enough to witness my project making a bit of a difference to someone's day. And that certainly felt good!
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