Family Support at St Cuthbert's Hospice

Illness brings change and this can result in strong and often painful feelings and difficulties at both an emotional and practical level.

The Family Support service aims to provide practical advice and emotional support to patients, their relatives and their carers.

Emotional support is available to patient, family and carer, providing the opportunity to express and discuss feelings either individually or together.

For more information, please contact the Family Support Team on 0191 386 1170.

Children’s Bereavement Service

Our Children’s Bereavement Team includes twelve volunteers and two members of staff, who can help children and teenagers to make some sense of illness and loss using a range of activities and therapies.

Children and young people don’t always articulate their feelings verbally, so as a hospice, we have a responsibility to help children to express themselves in whatever way is most appropriate to them.

As the team builds links within the local community, their counselling services will be available to children and young people who do not have a connection to St Cuthbert’s Hospice, as well as those related to hospice patients.

The Moving On Group

Even when cancer is no longer present, the psychological effects can last indefinitely, as people live with the uncertainty of whether the cancer will return. As increasing amount of lives are saved, we need to ensure that survivors are able to enjoy their lives. The Moving On counselling group at St Cuthbert’s Hospice is able to help people through the journey to normality in the following ways:

- To assist in moving on psychologically and emotionally from the trauma of cancer.

- To help reassess and move on with life, enabling fears of recurrence to be contained and balanced.

- To focus upon life and future rather than illness:- to regain independence and a sense of normality.

- To help each other by sharing experiences

What will it involve?

- A group of between 6 and 10 people who are in a similar situation to each other.

- An opportunity to contribute to your personal and other group members wellbeing

- It is time limited; of 6 week duration

- For further information, please contact the Family Support Team.