Reveived. 28th November 2004 from Mrs Liese DeGroot.
Dear Jane,
last week I returned from my work in San Lazaro
Hospital in
> Manila. And it was thanks to you and
ROSECharities Trust, that I was
> able to be there and continue the work with
the Palliative care core
> team. Slowly but surely the concept
palliative care is becoming more
> known in the hospital and the team is getting
more and more referrals
> from several wards. The biggest gains have
been made in the pulmonary
> TB ward, where members of the team have
been working with 75 Bantay
> (caregivers of the patients, usually family).
They are being taught
> how to provide basic physical care and also
there is a lot of
> attention paid to the emotional care of the
patient and their family.
> Talking about dying is part of this and more
patients and family have
> been able to say goodbye and be together.
>
> The other project in that ward was to clean
an area in the centre of
> the ward of all rubbish and establish a
garden there. This area is now
> clean, prepared and ready for planting, and
the plants have arrived.
> We are very excited to have this development,
it means that patients
> can go outside, where there is less infection
risk and meet with their
> children or other family.
>
> The Starfish team is working closely together
with the Early Childhood
> Care Centre (ECCC). This centre was set up
with funding from a
> Canadian NGO and looks after small children,
whose parents are in
> hospital. These children are dealing with a
lot of grief, many parents
> die. The work of the two teams dove-tails
beautifully and in this last
> trip I facilitated a 3 day workshop with
members of both teams.
>
> Some members of the core-team are more
confident about teaching Pall.
> Care now.
>
> We have identified that more time needs to be
given to
> symptom-management and the schedule of the
programme is being altered
> to be able to accommodate this.
>
> The other aspect of my work is the continuing
grief and loss self-care
> workshop, for the members of the Starfish
team. Their workload is huge
> and burnout is always close.>
>
> Jane, again many thanks for your support.
>
> >
> With kind regards, Liese.
>