“How can you do therapy in a hospice?” is a question we have been asked many times. The question we should be asking is “how can you not?”

A huge focus for us at St Luke’s is enablement. Alongside our Medical and Nursing teams, our St Luke’s Therapy Team focus on each person’s individual aims and wishes, and how we can enable them to achieve them.

Enablement is not just about getting better or getting home, it’s about getting what each patient wants from being with us here at St Luke’s. Enablement is not about someone’s functional status, how able they are and whether they will be going home or not, it can be about anything that matters to them.

Our Therapist Team support people in all areas and have worked with many people, enabling them to do what can be seen as small goals, but are hugely important to them.

An individual’s goal could be anything from practising mobility on stairs with a view to going home, working towards being hoisted out into a chair to spend time with visitors, working on understanding breathing, anxiety or fatigue or simply being able to spend time with friends and family.

Over the last year, the team have changed the way they work and are more present on the In Patient Centre than ever before. They work with our patients every day to understand what is important to them, and help them work towards their goals.

James

“I’ve found having physio has been really informative. People think you come into a hospice to die, but instead you’ve helped me get better."

Scott

“Therapy has really helped me. It’s made me do more and helped me to be proactive in getting myself better."

Annette

“I like doing things, it makes me get up and move and it gives me something to do."

Therapy Team

“We, as a team working in palliative care, know what hospices are about. We know that people do not all come to die, and that in fact the reverse happens. We give people the time and space to live. We know this, our patients and their family and friends know that. Now we just need the whole world to know that.”

For more information on our Therapy Team, please click here. Please note that our Active Intervention Centre services are currently only available for Inpatients due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is something being regularly reviewed and we look forward to welcoming more patients back to the centre as soon as restrictions allow.