Stepping Stone Hospice in need of vehicles
An extra set of wheels will greatly assist the hospice in reaching more patients.
Stepping Stone Hospice and Care Services need two vehicles to continue caring for patients in the community.
The organisation cares for about 150 to 160 patients including children and most of these patients are seen and cared for in the comfort of their own homes.
Founder of Stepping Stone Tersia Burger said: “When our nurses visit the patients, the care they give them keeps the patients out of the hospital.”
Sr Zaris Wasti is a pediatric palliative care specialist nurse responsible for caring for children and highlights that home visits are an essential part of the role the Hospice plays. It, for example, reduces the pressure off the unit as the facility only allows a limited number of patients. The nurses ensure they deliver the quality of life to the patients.
Qualified palliative care nurse Sr Nomsa Shaba emphasised: “We do community visits because the facility is only an eight-bed unit and most patients cannot be admitted when the need arises. Visiting homes helps us continue with the nursing care and ensuring the patient and their family’s needs are attended to.”
Stepping Stone Hospice provides holistic palliative care to its patients which focuses on the whole person, not just the condition.
“This type of care includes the physical, emotional, psychosocial, cultural and spiritual aspects of a human being and by so doing we reach a large number and help improve their quality of life,” she added.
The vehicles will help a great deal in ensuring the nurses can visit each patient’s home.
Ronee Dalais is also a qualified palliative care nurse, working in the community, and she said: “We need the vehicles to introduce Hospice to the patient. Visiting them in the comfort of their home is a gentler introduction.
Apart from that, many of our patients do not have transport to get to the facility.”
The nurses look after many patients in the suburbs and townships of Johannesburg south and having two more vehicles will make a difference and have a greater impact on the work they do in these communities.
When the nurses visit they take supplies in the car such as medicine, nappies, and food parcels. It is about taking Hospice in a car to the patients.
To assist or for more, contact tersia@steppingstonehospice.co.za or call 083 251 9605.
