Warrnambool and District Community Hospice is helping make sure last wishes have a chance to become reality. 

The first program of its kind in the state, if not the nation, hospice in the home provides trained volunteers to fill the gaps in existing palliative care services, providing extended daytime, weekend, and overnight care to support the terminally ill and their families and carers.

Hospice president Eric Fairbank, a palliative care expert, said while in previous generations it had been common to die at home, death had since become a “medical event”.

“Although 70 per cent of people say they want to die in the familiar surroundings of their own home, with carers and pets around, rather than in the busy, clinical, and often noisy environment of a hospital with diminished privacy, only 14 per cent manage to do so,” he said. 

“This is about half the rate of comparable societies such as New Zealand, the United States, Ireland and France.”

Community fund-raising has helped get the program off the ground and Deakin University has provided a base for the organisation, however, ongoing support is needed to secure the not-for-profit program’s future.

“We do not receive any government funding to achieve the aim of helping people who wish to die at home,” Dr Fairbank said.

“We provide this service to carers and families completely free of charge, and therefore continue to rely on community generosity to continue our work.”

Dr Fairbank said the hospice program helped support families and carers on what could be a difficult and exhausting journey.

“There is no doubt that dying at home places extra burdens on families, and they can become exhausted. Patients don’t want to be that burden, or they don’t want to leave the memory of their death in the house,” he said. 

“But dying at home can leave wonderful memories of family closeness, the opportunity to give a loved person their final wishes, and lead to a peaceful and gentle death. Good memories, not bad ones.

“This has been the experience of many of our volunteers. They have found that nursing family members or friends at home has been a real privilege. Having had that experience, they now wish to make it possible for others.”

The hospice in the home program takes referrals from hospitals, community palliative care, GPs, specialists, families or patients themselves. To make a referral phone 5563 3220, or email info@wdchospice.org.au

To find out more about the hospice, or to donate, visit www.wdchospice.org.au