Our Model Of Care

Little Haven’s nurses are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week giving professional palliative nursing and guidance to carers. Our community based care is provided in the home, or patients and families may visit our centre at 14 Henry Street for support or therapies.

The Little Haven ‘hospice’ model of community based palliative care values

early intervention of palliative care to support patients from their point of diagnosis
supporting patients undergoing active treatments eg. Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy
shaping compassion by community engagement in care of the dying

Our team includes Specialist Palliative Care Nurses, Social Workers, Respite Care Volunteers and Complementary Therapists working with your treating Doctor to provide a holistic approach to patient care. Addressing all of the patient’s and carers physical, social, emotional, psychological and spiritual needs.

The Greek Physician Hippocrates, said “It is more important to know the person who has the disease than it is to know the disease that the person has”. That sums up our approach to palliative care ~ every patient will have different needs and care will be individually tailored to those needs.

Little Haven values equitable access for all through provision of all services on a no fee basis

What we do:

Receive a referral and make contact with the patient/carer within 48 hours, then plan nursing visits according to need.
Commence discussions and paperwork regarding advance health planning and end of life care wishes.
Arrange referrals to My Aged Care (MAC) for RAS and or ACAT, including for under 65 as needed.
Provide equipment to minimize distress and energy use of patients and improve safety when required and at no cost.
Increase home visits to monitor patient symptoms and carer coping as deterioration is occurring
Provide complementary therapies to assist symptom control, reduce stress and help with emotional distress for both patient and carer.
Provide a respite volunteer to support the patient and carer at home.
Work closely with the patient’s GP +/- Palliative Care Physician to help maximize quality of life by minimizing symptoms
Provide out of hours personal contact with a Little Haven RN for any problems right from the beginning of the admission. After hours visit for symptom management provided as needed
Assist with full hygiene care and support on a daily basis when the patient is advancing towards the dying phase.
Provide Social Work support to assist with Advance Care Plans / My Aged Care Assessments/ Sourcing aged care services / Loss and Grief Counselling
Arrange Referrals to Allied Health Services as needed
Assist the patient to remain at home to die and continue bereavement support to the carer through our bereavement support service
Alternatively, if the patient wishes to die in hospital, needs very complex symptom control, the carer can’t manage or there is no carer, our team work closely with the local hospital for as seamless an admission as possible when the time comes. Advocacy and support will continue for our patient whilst they are an inpatient.

On average we support 60 per cent of our patients to remain at home to die (if this is their wish), and a further 24 per cent die with less than five days in hospital. Little Haven also has a track record of assisting people in hospital who wish to die at home, of urgently getting home with a bed and other equipment in place to be able to be supported in their chosen environment.

Whilst enabling families in our area to have their end of life choices met, this also demonstrates an enormous benefit to the Hospital and Health Service in freeing up acute care beds.