Otago Community Hospice wants to celebrate the breadth of palliative service that can be found in Otago for this year’s Hospice Awareness Week, CEO Ginny Green says. 

The specialist service, which supports around 800 terminally ill patients each year, can be found throughout the region - from Waitaki through to the Upper Clutha, across to Tapanui and down to Owaka and the Catlins.  

This year Hospice Awareness Week coincides with the opening of a new Hospice Hub in Cromwell to help serve Central Otago clients.

Ginny said she was thrilled to have found the busy team a more suitable space for them to grow and continue providing quality specialist palliative care throughout the Central region.

“The community need is high so we have moved very quickly on this new location,” she said. 

“The hub provides space for our team to build more connections in the community and we are all looking forward to that.”

Ginny said she often hears from people surprised that Otago Community Hospice’s services extends beyond its inpatient unit in the North East Valley in Dunedin. 

“But that’s what our service is nowadays - everywhere,” she said.

“We have 40 staff specially trained in palliative care - nurses, doctors, counsellors, kaimahi wairua/spiritual care workers, social workers, cultural advisors and educators - working in your corner of Otago and supporting those who are dying, to live well to the end.”

Last year the team drove more than 450,000km in order to deliver almost 4,000 community visits across Otago.

Ginny said the public may be surprised to know that only one third of hospice clients will ever require a trip to inpatient service in Dunedin.

Hospice Awareness Week – which begins today (Monday May 15) and runs until May 21 – helps the hospice raise money so it can continue to offer its free services to everyone in the region who needs them.

A little over half (56 percent) of Otago Community Hospice’s funding comes from the government and the remainder needs to be raised in the community each year.

“Our fundraising target is $3 million, which equates to $8,220 every day,” Ginny said.

Learn more about Otago Community Hospice or make a donation here.

PHOTO: Supplied