A community-funded end-of-life care project marks a new partnership between Carter Court Rest Home and Hospice Wairarapa to improve palliative care for locals needing in-patient support.
The project will establish a newly-equipped palliative care space in Carterton.
Hospice Wairarapa is collaborating with The Carter Society, which operates Carter Court Rest Home, to renovate the area to provide quality palliative care for those in need of it.
Located at Carter Court Rest Home, it will undergo a $145,000 renovation to make it a fit-for-purpose space. It will have a bedroom, bathroom, whānau area and kitchenette, as well as a pull-down bed for whānau use. The area will also have its own fully-accessible external access.
Carter Court will provide day-to-day services and patient care with support from clinical services, including the specialist Wairarapa Kahukura palliative care nursing team. Hospice Wairarapa Chief Executive Gretchen Saulbrey said the $145,000 funding it is providing for the room’s renovation had been raised by the Wairarapa community and ring-fenced for such a service.
“The community has been asking us to provide an in-patient palliative service for some time but the cost of establishing and running a standalone facility would have been prohibitive,” she said. “This partnership between Hospice Wairarapa and the Carter Society is an innovative approach to solving this problem.
“By working with established health providers with strong links to the health system and our community we are able to offer people improved choice with their end-of-life care decisions, while also ensuring we are setting up this palliative service to be sustainable in the long term,” she added.
Ms Saulbrey said locating the palliative care room at Carter Court in Carterton had the added benefit of a central Wairarapa location, access to the Carter Court care team, the specialist Kahukura palliative care nursing team and other medical and social support, while still having a home-like environment that is accessible for all.
“This room provides another option for a high level of care that is also designed to be comfortable and welcoming for whānau,” she said. “Small things like providing space for whānau to be together, a bed for family members to use and external access to the room will make a big difference to the experience patients and their families have during the end-of-life journey,” she noted.
“We will be working with a small group of clinical experts, iwi representatives, Māori and Pasifika health providers to finalise room design plans to make sure we get this right.”
FOCUS through its role as the Wairarapa Needs Assessment Coordination Centre, and Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand will fund ongoing patient care costs.
Renovation of the room will begin in September 2023 and it’s expected to be open for use in early 2024.
