Practical Responses - The Hospice Movement
The strongest argument against euthanasia. Hospices help people to die with dignity.
The aim of the Hospice Movement
- Care and support for patients, relatives and friends at the most difficult stage in their lives.
- Relieve pain – whether caused by the illness or by the stress and fear it creates. Hospices specialise in pain control and lead the way in palliative medicine (pain control by drugs). They say all pain, no matter how severe, can be brought under control.
- Enable patients, families and friends to face up to death by allowing them to talk a free and open way. This is one of the main facilities offered by Hospices.
- Care for the emotional needs of relatives – before, during and after the patient’s death. In most hospitals, the needs relatives are largely ignored. Hospices seeks to fulfil those needs.
How did the Hospice Movement begin?
Late 1900s: A group of Irish nuns, Sisters of Charity, set up a home in Dublin to care for the dying.
1900: 5 of the nuns travel to the East End of London and continue the work.
1967: Cecily Saunders, a nurse, helped to create St. Joseph’s Hospice in London, 1 of the most famous.
Now: 100+ hospices in England. At any one time, they care for 2000+ patients.
Hospices are not just for Christians, and not everyone who works there is a Christian. They do not try to make anyone believe in God, but provide opportunities to talk to ministers / priests if the patient wants. Hospices support relatives, even after the patient has died. Some Hospices are for children, with facilities for children and families, with play areas, gardens, and rooms for brothers and sisters to stay.
"We have to concern ourselves with the quality of life as well as its length"
Dame Cicely Saunders
"Hospices are places where people come to live, not to die"
Dr.H. Mossop - A Hospice doctor
Macmillan Nurses
Special nurses who visit patients and their families in Hospices and at home. Trained to care for the terminally ill. The patient sees a familiar face rather than different nursing shift every day.
Christians may support the Hospice movement and Macmillan nurses by:
- Raising money, goods, or other necessary items.
- Volunteering to do work at the Hospice.
- Working in a charity shop which gives its proceeds to the Hospice.
- Other Christians choose to spend their lives working in Hospices or train as Macmillan nurses