Hope House.
Neil Thomas looks at the ever-expanding role of Hope House as it marks the 15th anniversary of its opening with some ambitious plans to further develop its services
The majority of parents never suffer the death of a child. Yet they can easily imagine the pain of such a tragedy. The majority of parents will not be told that their beloved infant will never live to be an adult. Yet it is not difficult for them to imagine the utter despair on hearing those words.
It is probably one of the reasons why Hope House has such a special place in the hearts of so many people in Shropshire and its borders.
A children’s hospice appeals to our common humanity and can reduce even the toughest to tears. Yet people are also inspired by Hope House’s brightness and its upbeat mantra of ‘making the most of short and precious lives’. Here, youngsters who have been dealt life’s cruellest hand can be seen laughing, playing, enjoying life. Their parents — and brothers and sisters — find support and respite. And in their darkest hour, someone is there for them.
Hope House is one of this region’s great success stories, with a tip-top inspection rating for its service. Aside from being a centre of compassion, it is a centre of excellence.
It is another reason why the charity galvanises so many people into fundraising — they know the money will be well spent.
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the opening of the hospice at Morda, near Oswestry, which provides essential care and support to terminally ill children, young people and their families from across Shropshire, Cheshire, and Mid and North Wales.
Santa runs and ’snowman shuffles’ have become favourites on the fundraising calendar for Hope House supporters.
A colourful programme of celebratory fundraising events has been organised.
Hope House, though, is also using the occasion to launch an appeal aimed at raising £1.5 million to build a brand new counselling centre that will offer help and support to even more bereaved families across the region.
It will be there not just for families who use Hope House regularly but also for those hit by the unexpected loss of a child, through accident or sudden illness, for instance. In short, the centre will be there for anyone who potentially needs it. It will be available to the entire community.
It is typical of the Hope House ethos of looking forward, always aiming to improve facilities, never resting on its laurels.
The need for the new centre has arisen entirely out of Hope House’s success and expertise.
In its 15 years its range of services, including counselling, has helped an estimated 450 families at Morda, its sister hospice at Ty Gobaith in North Wales and in their own homes.
Over the past 15 years demand for Hope House’s counselling services has grown enormously, not just from families who have used the hospice but also from those families in the wider community who have suffered a sudden and traumatic bereavement.
David Featherstone.
Chief executive David Featherstone says the new centre is essential to fulfil a vital and increasing need.
“At the moment counsellors are seeing families and children either at Hope House or Ty Gobaith, which isn’t ideal. It means they have to come to the hospice, often seeing other children playing in the bright, happy atmosphere that we try to create. This can be very traumatic for anyone who has recently lost a child, or has memories of visiting the hospice with their child.”
The new centre will also provide space for bringing groups of parents or siblings together to provide mutual support, which simply isn’t possible in the present building, says David.
He gives me a short tour of the hospice which demonstrates acutely the desperate need for the new centre.
For instance, Hope House’s crack team of expert counsellors and social workers — among the cream of their profession in the entire country — are currently crammed into a small loft space originally used for storage when the hospice first opened in October 1995.
A small games room has had to be given over to office space while a bedroom for parents who need to stay over with a sick child, is currently being used for counselling.
And all the time the round-the-clock care and support that Hope House offers is more and more in demand.
“We are increasingly using our specialist skills to help other families who have suffered the sudden and unexpected death of a child through accident or illness, and also to help children and young people who have lost someone close to them in traumatic circumstances,” says David.
Planning permission was granted in February for the centre, which will be built on land next to Hope House so that the existing counselling team can work inside, but are easily able to get to the hospice for emergencies.
The building will provide four individual counselling rooms, a family therapy room and a room for group therapy meetings, all facing onto specially designed gardens with private corners for reflection and areas for remembrance activities.
David adds: “We are mindful that the current economic climate makes this a challenging time to launch a new appeal, but the need for the new centre is such that we really do need to push ahead now.
“We hope the community and local businesses who have always supported us will continue to appreciate the specialist work that Hope House does for children and families and will now help us to achieve the £1.5 million we need to build this essential centre.
“When Hope House was designed in 1992, although counselling and psycho/social support was offered to all of our families it was a relatively informal feature of the service and therefore not a great deal of space was devoted to it,” recalls David, who was drafted in at the birth of Hope House to project-build the hospice.
“During the 15 years we have been open and delivering a palliative care service to families, the need to deal with their emotional needs — especially those of children who have lost a brother or sister — has grown enormously.
“Because of our reputation as a centre of excellence we receive many referrals from the NHS or social services.
“Our reputation for being able to talk to children and parents about the loss of a young family member means we are increasingly called on to assist in supporting families who have suffered the sudden and unexpected death of a child. Road-traffic accidents, cot deaths, and suicide are all traumas the NHS, social services and the emergency services find very difficult to deal with long term, and they therefore frequently call on our expertise in this area.
“It is important that we are able to provide appropriate, professional support and counselling to all individuals and families in the community who have been touched by childhood bereavement. We would like to provide this support in a relaxed, comfortable, private and serene environment that helps traumatised people feel safe and calm.”
The centre will be available to all families who have a life-limited child or young person who is using the hospice; all bereaved hospice families; all families across the Hope House and Ty Gobaith catchment area who have been bereaved of a child or young person (up to 25 years old) in whatever circumstances; and all children and young people who have been bereaved of someone close to them in traumatic circumstances.
Strain
Counsellors, of course, are occasionally called upon to help Hope House’s own care team, for the emotional strain of the job can well be imagined, particularly when trying to deal with the death of a child who you have become extremely attached to through many years of care.
David adds: “In the future we would like to extend counselling at the new centre to all children and young people experiencing loss through bereavement in whatever circumstances as well as health and social care professionals in the community who work with children and young people and their families facing or following bereavement, who may need support or supervision.”
The centre will also be used to train Hope House’s own staff for, at present, the hospice has to close to facilitate such sessions.
The plan is to have the new centre ready for use by Easter 2011. David knows that raising £1.5 million in addition to the £4 million needed this year to keep both hospices running is a tough ask, but he has supreme confidence in his crack appeals team, led by director Simi Epstein and fundraising manager Vanessa Thomas, as well as the generosity of the people of Shropshire, Mid and North Wales and Cheshire.
“There are 1.6 million people in our catchment area, which isn’t very many when you consider the number of people city hospices can call on. Yet they help us to raise the money to keep going year after year, through tough economic times and good. People have bought into the Hope House ideal, have an emotional stake in it, which is wonderful.”
You can tell that by the number of people who belong to friends’ groups or help to run Hope House’s small chain of charity shops. When service awards were initiated earlier this year to mark the 15th anniversary, 400 people were recognised for their commitment over several years.
And then there are the rest: the people who year after year, run, walk, cycle, dance, dine, climb, bungee-jump, parachute, dress as snowmen and santas, hold school assemblies and classroom sponsored silences, bake cakes, sell jumble, and come up with any amount of other wild, wacky and wonderful ways of raising money. And they only needed to hear two words to spark them into action.
Hope House.
An artist’s impression of the planned new facilities.
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