Life limiting needs and palliative care
If you have been told that you or your child may not get better, you might also have heard about palliative care.
Palliative care is for people living with a terminal illness where a cure is no longer possible. It is not just for people diagnosed with terminal cancer, but for any terminal condition.
It is also for people who have a complex illness and need their symptoms controlled. Although these people usually have an advanced, progressive condition, this is not always the case.
Palliative care aims to treat or manage pain and other physical symptoms. It will also help with any psychological, social, or spiritual needs. Support may involve medicines, therapies, and any other support that specialist teams believe will help. Palliative care also includes caring for people who are nearing the end of life. This is called end-of-life care.
The goal is to help everyone affected by the diagnosis to achieve the best quality of life.
Palliative Care Hub
The Palliative Care Hub is a free telephone service in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for people who need help living with a life-limiting illness.
The service is for patients, families, carers, and healthcare staff who might require palliative or end of life care advice for themselves or their patients.
Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialists are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Just call 111 and select option 3 to speak to a specialist palliative care nurse who is available for advice, support and signposting to local services.
East Anglia Children's Hospices (EACH)
East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) supports families and cares for children and young people, 0-18 years, with life-threatening conditions across Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and North, Mid and West Essex. Their family-centred approach includes specialist nursing care, symptom management support, short breaks, wellbeing activities, therapies, and counselling; all meeting the individual needs of the child, young person, and whole family.
Their hospices aren’t just about end-of-life care; they’re often very happy and fun places, where young people can live life to their full potential. They are places where families feel safe, at home, and where they can spend quality time together, enabling parents to be parents, not caregivers. When time is short, they help families make the most of their precious time together.
EACH offers care to families with children and young people who:
- live in North, Mid and West Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Peterborough, and Cambridgeshire
- have a condition with no reasonable hope of cure and from which they may/will die in childhood or early adulthood
- have a condition (or are diagnosed with a condition in the antenatal period) for which curative treatment may be feasible but can fail, such as children and young people with cancer and for babies born where intensive care has been deemed inappropriate and those with post-natal conditions which result in the baby experiencing unbearable suffering in the course of their illness or treatment.
Families can self-refer, or be referred by a health professional, by contacting the hospices by:
Telephone: 01223 815100
Email ipswichadmin@each.org.uk
Arthur Rank Hospice
Arthur Rank Hospice supports people living in Cambridgeshire with an advanced serious illness or a life-limiting condition and those in need of end-of-life care. Any health or social care professional can make a referral. For some service areas, patients, families, and friends can also self-refer. To be accepted for the referral, the below must be met:
- The patient is aged over 18 and is registered with a GP in Cambridgeshire
- The patient has an advanced serious illness or life-limiting condition
- The patient must have given their consent to be referred if they are competent to do so, or a referral is made in their best interest