Ensuring no-one dies alone, helping people feel less afraid of dying and making sure Mountbatten will still be there when Islanders need them most are key to ambitious plans for the charity’s future.
The launch of Mountbatten’s five-year strategy coincides with a campaign which urges the community to stand together with the charity to help achieve these 3 aims.
The ‘love will see us through’ campaign aims to harness the love of the Island community and, over the coming months, will see practical ways people can help being shared on Mountbatten’s website and social media channels (using the hashtag #standwithus).
Additionally, Islanders are encouraged to wear a sunflower to show they stand in solidarity with the much-loved hospice and that they have made a difference to the future of the Island community.
Nigel Hartley, CEO of Mountbatten, says:
“We identified five years ago that we were not going to be able to meet the growing demands of our communities by delivering services in the way which we had always done.
“The growing older population, together with radical changes in the ways people are living and dying, provides us with serious challenges.
“By thinking and acting innovatively and trialling new ways of offering support, we have already achieved so much but there is so much more to do, especially as people live longer and therefore, die slower.
Article continues below this advertisement “We have worked on developing this strategy for some time but without the support we have had from the community, particularly in these last few months, we would not stand a chance of achieving it.”
The strategy considers the limited human and financial resources and wider pressures on the healthcare system, both now and in the future.
Areas identified for continuous development include sustaining care and support services and growing Mountbatten’s team of volunteers.
Finding a common language to talk about Mountbatten’s work, delivering robust education and training programmes for partners and ensuring its own workforce is as skilled as possible, all form part of the plan.
Nigel adds:
“We are experts in death, dying and bereavement and it’s with our absolute confidence that we bring this strategy together and deliver on it for the good of the Island.
“Our residents need and deserve the best possible services Mountbatten can offer, from those requiring complex care to people who are simply curious about death.”
To view the full strategy, visit www.mountbatten.org.uk/ourfuture.
I was going to make comments on all of the above … but i will keep it simple.
I stopped supporting this charity about 4 years ago, when they made major changes, and the latest statements mean i will still not be supporting them.
I believe that unless you have been through cancer no one understands what it is like the end is not scary lots of help available and nurses to sit with people at the end how do I know because I was a nurse
I also have cancer and I can say that no one has helped me even
The nurses have had no time to listen no counciling after my treatment
No contact and no care plan so I will not be giving
Having had the bitter loss of a much loved one, who was cared for in the Hospice, I can only say how nice the staff were to not only the patient, but to us all.
I do object that the top guy earns, or ‘takes’ such a high salary, and I do question, whether that is necessary, as surely there must be learned people who would do much of the work for a much lower fee just as well.
But as I know nothing about such work, all I can say is the caring staff are wonderful, and I feel it is they who deserve decent pay and conditions for the difficult task they cheerfully face each day.
So, whilst understanding issues, we really must fund this wonderful organisation for the staff and mainly for the patients and their families sakes.
But there is nothing ‘wrong’ in questioning the salaries and necessity of those at the top, seemingly taking a huge portion of the generous and hard earned donations and charity event proceeds.
I guess most charities have this seemingly ‘top heavy’ salary structure but I am unsure if it ‘has’ or ‘needs’ to be so.
Even I would feel ‘guilty’ taking more than I needed from such kindly given donations.
I would just like to say that having been a volunteer for number of years I was disappointed to be told that my services would not be needed as I am over 70. This seems to be the only charity that has this policy and I am now helping out at another charity The Salvation Army.