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St Teresa’s Hospice - Overview of the Woodlands Annexe and our Future Objectives:
The prime need is to create additional space and to improve facilities on-site for existing and planned services, in order to respect patient dignity and privacy, particularly with older patients and their carers in mind, and to respond to needs identified from professional, patient and carer feedback, ie.:
1. by building an annexe to house complementary therapies and counselling services, we will:
a. enable the existing services to operate more efficiently/effectively
b. develop new services to support patients, their primary carers, and their families
c. develop a new service to support Children and Young People who have been bereaved (”butterflies” – see overview below)
2. by refurbishing in our existing building - to add 2 new, en suite single bedrooms to our In Patient Unit the unit will operate at full registered capacity (6 beds). Capacity has been reduced to 4 beds as we consider it undignified for patients to share a room at end of life, and also we had no space to enable relatives to withdraw.
a. by creating a relatives room and new ward kitchen (by converting current office space) we will provide improved kitchen facilities and a designated room for relatives and other visitors, to support them at their most distressing time.
3. by refurbishing the reception area in our main building we will ensure that patients, carers and visitors are afforded more privacy and dignity on entering the building. The current reception area is a main thoroughfare with no comfortable and discreet waiting area. We now need to re-model, in order to create a more appropriate environment, particularly with the needs of elderly and disabled people in mind.
4. The annexe building project will inevitably cause disruption and damage to the existing large lawned garden; we plan to take the opportunity to create a garden which is more relevant to our work, i.e. with smaller spaces, where patients and carers can spend time in quiet contemplation, in privacy and where people can grieve with dignity; the design will take health & safety very much into consideration, and with the needs of elderly and disabled people in mind.