Your questions answered
Q. What does the Hospice of the Valleys do? A. We provide a hospice-at-home service for adults with life-limiting illnesses in Blaenau Gwent and we provide emotional support to families and carers through the illness and into bereavement if appropriate. The hospice can be divided into three sections – our drop-in clinics, our hospice at home service and our bereavement service.Q. Where is the hospice?
A. The hospice’s offices are in Morgan Street, Tredegar - but we offer a hospice-at-home service to anyone in Blaenau Gwent. Patients from outside the area are welcome at our drop-in and Saturday clinics.Q. What facilities does the Hospice of the Valleys provide?
A. Every week we hold clinics in each of the four towns in Blaenau Gwent, where patients can meet with a nurse, social worker and other cancer sufferers. They can also receive complementary therapies such as massage and reflexologyThe hospice also provides counselling and bereavement support.
Q. Who provides all these services?
A. The hospice has a team of seven nurses, a doctor, social workers plus administrative and fundraising staff. A huge band of more than 130 volunteers helps with running our clinics and charity shops and with fundraising events.Q. Do you organise any social events for patients?
A. We organise an annual weekend visit to Blackpool to see the lights, as well as trips to the pantomime and ice shows.Q. Where do your patients come from and how many do you have?
A. Our patients come from all over Blaenau Gwent. Last year we treated 483 patients.Q. How many patients attend your clinics?
A. There were 2,696 attendances at our clinics last year.Q. How many of your patients are able to die at home?
A. Last year 65.4 per cent of patients who died while in the hospice’s care died at home. The national average for home deaths is around 23 per cent.Q. What uniform do your nurses wear?
A. None of nurses wear uniform. Our service is confidential and some patients receiving home visits may not want neighbours to know that they are unwell and that hospice nurses are visiting them.Q. Do patients have to pay to use any of the hospice’s services?
A. All the hospice’s services are completely free of charge to patients and their families.
Q. How do you fund the hospice then?
A. The hospice costs around £1 million a year to run. It is a charity and receives some money from the Welsh Assembly and Blaenau Gwent Local Health Board but the remainder comes from donations, legacies and from our fundraising in Blaenau Gwent.Q. How can I help to secure the future of the Hospice of the Valleys?
A. There are lots of different ways to help. You can make donations, sign up to our £2 a month campaign (please click here for a leaflet), leave a gift in your will, join our band of volunteers, hold a fundraising event or support the events we put on ourselves or donate goods to our chain of six charity shops.Q. Is the Hospice of the Valleys a religious organisation?
A. No, not entirely, but we take our patients’ spiritual needs very much into consideration. We also have a chaplain, the Reverend Sue Bray, who provides spiritual care to patients who want it.Q. Where do I go for further information?
A. For more information about the clinics or patient services contact the hospice office on 01495 717277. For information about volunteering or helping fundraise for the hospice, contact 01495 712936/7.