Hospice Awareness Week 2025
It’s National Hospice Awareness Week from 12-18 May and the Nurse Maude Hospice Palliative Care Service would like to thank everyone that supports our work, you make it possible to provide this specialist service free of charge across Canterbury when people need us.
We support patients and their family alongside their GP’s, practice nurses, district nursing, aged care staff and home care support to deliver specialist palliative care in the person’s home. We also provide short-term in-patient care in our Hospice, should it be required. Last year we supported 1,353 clients and their families, with 278 visiting the in-patient unit. We also provided close to 3,000 hours to residential care in the community.
While we receive Government funding, Nurse Maude raises around $2m a year to deliver the full service at no cost to those who use it, and we are extremely grateful for all the support we receive. The Nurse Maude Hospice Shops and TradeMe provide almost half the annual funding shortfall required each year, so if you have donated clothes or bric-a-brac or bought from one of our stores, thank you, your support means a lot to us and those we care for. With over 250 volunteers at Nurse Maude, donating over 21,000 hours of their time each year to support our retail operations, Care Home, and Hospice we also say a huge thank you to this dedicated army of supporters and we look forward to celebrating them during Volunteer week in June.
We are also grateful to everyone that has made a cash donation to Nurse Maude, often in memory of a loved one, your support and the funds received from corporate partners and their customers support training, resources, and equipment for people in our community. Because of your support we don’t turn anyone away and no one needs to pay for the services we provide.
Nurse Maude will be opening a new Hospice building next year, while most people receive the care they need where they live, occasionally a short stay in the hospice is required, for example to establish pain management routines, symptom assessment or end of life care. It’s important that while people are in the hospice that it feels comfortable, and welcoming - one where the whole family can visit and stay, overnight if they want to, it’s a home away from home. The funds to build the new hospice have come in part from the transformational gifts provided when people remember Nurse Maude in their Will, alongside major gifts from people like Denver Glass and Trust Grants. If you would like to support the new hospice, or the Specialist Hospice Palliative Care Service you can find out more at www.nursemaude.org.nz/get-involved.
People in Canterbury can access the Nurse Maude Hospice Palliative Care service with a referral from their GP. There are also resources available online for anyone wanting to know more about what to expect as someone approaches the end of their life.
Once again, thank you for your continued support of Nurse Maude and the Hospice Palliative Care Service.
