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Becoming a New PatientAsk your doctor or clinic to complete the Drakenstein Palliative Hospice referral form which can be downloaded from this website or phone or email the office to send you a form. admin@drakensteinhospice.org.za / 021 8724060 Collect a Referral Form from the office at 109 Breda Street, Paarl Send us your referral via email, fax, or hand delivery to 109 Breda Street, Paarl. This can be done either by yourself, a family member, or your health practitioner. Drakenstein Palliative Hospice will contact you within 24 hours to arrange a home visit to assess your needs and work with you on a way forward.
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What is Palliative Care?Palliative care focuses on managing the symptoms associated with an illness that has the potential to limit your quality of life and life expectancy. Palliative care focuses on the whole person; in his/her environment; within his/her social circumstances; considering personal religious, cultural, or spiritual preferences; supporting the emotional impact; addresses understanding of the illness while; professionally managing the symptoms such as pain, nausea, and vomiting, constipation, agitation, body changes, etc.
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The Areas We Work InWe work primarily in the Drakenstein Sub-District, as part of the Cape Winelands (from Simondium to Saron). We look after over 220 - 250 free patients in the district per month. On request we will assist patients in neighbouring towns (incl. Malmesbury) where their is no palliative care or homebased care service.
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Interested in our Free Service?We provide a free service to all who require palliative care whether or not they are able to pay. For all additional services such as private palliative care, adherence support, or advance care plan services please see the next section on our paid services. Our free service provides access to the specialised skills of our interdisciplinary team. The focus is on the professional management of symptoms associated with a severe life-threatening and life-limiting illness. Together we develop an individual care plan and allocate staff and resources to achieve the plan. The plan is revised together with the patient and their family, adapted as needs and circumstances change. Home-based caregivers may be allocated to assist with some hygiene needs. We work together with the family, providing specialised expertise and support to maximise the quality of life and dignity in death. Our motto is: Helping people help people Please contact us to find out more about our Free Service.
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Interested in our Paid Service?Our specialty is quality home-based care. The paid service offers supervised expertise for patients and families who may need more than the free service. The DPH interdisciplinary team admits the patient, develops a care plan, and provides ongoing care and supervision as per the care plan. Caregivers will be allocated and introduced to the patient and family members. Our team will supervise and support the caregivers to provide the best quality home care. The service may be terminated at anytime with 24 hours' notice. The conditions for our paid service can be negotiated as patients and family need change.
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Am I eligible to make use of this service?Diagnosis: Patients with Cancer, who are HIV positive (Aids), have drug-resistant or complicated TB, terminal diabetes, terminal CVA, congestive cardiac failure, motor neuron disease (MND), severe dementia, etc., who require holistic palliative care: physical (active symptom management), emotional, social, cultural, health literacy and spiritual care. Physical Needs: Patients who spend more than 50% of their time in bed (non-ambulant patients). Patients in need of nursing care; wound care, pain control, a bed bath, PEG feeding, tracheostomy or stoma care and support, pressure care, who may need their blood pressure or diabetes monitoring or TB and medication management or medication and dressing supplies for patients not able to get to their nearest clinic.
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Free vs Paid ServiceFree Palliative Care Service: We provide a free service to all you meet the admission requirements within our scope of practice. We only provide a home-care service but would also do visits to Old Age, Frail Care, and Nursing homes at the request of the patient's doctor or the Care Facility. We have an Interdisciplinary Team available Palliative Care Consultant Doctor Palliative Care Professional Registered Nurses Palliative Care Social Workers Social Auxiliary Workers (Palliatively trained) Home Based Caregivers (Palliatively trained) The patient is the head of the team and the family and community support services are considered to be part of the team. We do active symptom management and physical, psychosocial, spiritual, and cultural support to the patient and family as guided by and requested by the patient and their family. Paid for service: the patient has a medical aid we claim from the medical aid for the service they approve. We also co-ordinate up to a 24hr a day homecare service supervised by the Interdisciplinary Team The patients paying for care have access to and receive holistic care services as the free care service
Our method to Palliative care
Patients are referred to us by a doctor through a referral form. Within 24h our interdisciplinary team do a medical/nursing and psychosocial assessment to develop a Holistic Palliative Care Plan.
Each Care Plan is tailor made to the patient and their needs. This plan is turned into a set of actions that are implemented by our interdisciplinary team to address the identified problem symptoms of the patient.
Using this method we deliver Quality Palliative Care enabling our patients and their families to experience quality in life and dignity in death and support into the bereavement period.
Meet our Management Team
Elizabeth Scrimgeour
CEO
Elizabeth is a Palliative Professional Nurse with specialisations in Midwifery, Oncology, and Psychiatry.
She has a BA Hons in Psychology and MTh in pastoral narrative
therapy.
Elizabeth is a palliative care advocate.
Justine Goliath
Corne Coetzee
OPERATIONAL MANAGER
Justine is a Palliative Social Worker with a Masters Degree in Social Work. She has a special affinity with children and is skilled in advanced care planning. Justine is also a skilled trainer in palliative care and SAW’s.
FINANCIAL MANAGER
Corne is a seasoned finance professional with a BCom Degree and an MBA, boasting a wealth of experience since 2007. Being a lifelong resident of the Drakenstein district, Corne is deeply committed to contributing positively to the community.
Sr. Susan Swanepoel
IDT MANAGER
Susan worked at Franschhoek Hospice for past 15 years as Nursing Manager.
Board member of WC HPCA and has portfolio of training and education.
Started at Drakenstein hospice 1st September as Interdisciplinary Team Co ordinator and Palliative Sister.
Susan feels privileged to be part of a 5 Star COHSASA accredited Hospice and experienced Palliative care team who provide Holistic
care to over 230 patients and their families in their homes.
Christabel Vosloo
MARKETING AND PR MANAGER
Christabel's marketing expertise, combined with her PR qualification, makes her a true professional in her field. Her deep connection with her hometown of Paarl and her intimate knowledge of the community dynamics into her marketing strategies.
Our interdisciplinary team
At Drakenstein Palliative Hospice the Patient is the head of our team. We work with professionals across all disciplines and expertise to provide our patients with access to holistic palliative care.
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We employ Palliative Care trained professional nurses and social workers. In 2004 we trained 25 palliative care home based caregivers to expand and support the work. We provide a free care service to an average of 220 - 250 patients per month.