Palliative and End-of-Life Care at Home

What palliative care at home covers

Palliative support is about comfort, dignity and presence rather than treatment. Our carers work alongside — never instead of — the GP, district nursing team and any hospice or specialist palliative service involved.

• Personal care delivered gently and at the person's own pace
• Repositioning and pressure area care to protect skin
• Support with eating and drinking for as long as it is wanted
• Prompting prescribed medication and recording what was taken
• Calm presence overnight so families can rest
• Practical household support so the home keeps running

Who does what: the team around the bed

Clinical decisions — symptom control, syringe drivers, prescribing — sit with the GP, district nurses and palliative specialists. Reedsfield carers provide the hours in between: the daily presence that makes home viable at all. We keep clear records and escalate changes promptly to the clinical team.

Supporting the family, not only the patient

Families at this stage are usually exhausted and frightened of getting something wrong. A large part of the carer's role is normalising the process, taking over the tasks that are draining, and giving people permission to sleep. We also make sure someone is reachable out of hours on 07403 862037.

Arranging care at short notice

Palliative packages often need to start quickly, sometimes straight from a hospital discharge. We will always be honest about what we can genuinely staff and by when, rather than accepting a package we cannot cover.