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At the central point between the Bay of Islands and the Hokianga, Kaikohe could well lay claim to being the beating heart of the special rohe of the Mid-Northland Hospice.   The hospice serves an area from Taupo Bay in the north to Towai in the south and, coast to coast, from the Bay of Islands to south Hokianga communities.  We can find other hospices up and down the motu but in our district we are fortunate to have the Mid-Northland Hospice as our hospice, serving a population of some 40,000 people.  The other Northland hospices bordering the mid-north are Kaitaia (Far North Community Hospice), Dargaville (Hospice Kaipara) and Whangarei (North Haven Hospice).  

	Volunteers tidying up the Property

Speaking with Hospice personnel, it is very apparent that, regardless of where they live, they identify with the mid-north and their hospice rohe.   Their primary roles are to serve our communities’ people who are facing life-limiting conditions.  Palliative care is both a personal and professional task and the Mid-Northland Hospice provides this free of any charge.  

Indeed, our Mid-Northland Hospice has to find some $350,000-400,000 annually, above the Government’s contribution through the Health Board, in order to maintain its services of palliative care.   That cold fact emphasises how the community’s support is always welcome – and needed – to generate hospice income.  Kaikohe and its immediate district assist with this by donations to the local hospice shop, raising a beast for the hospice, volunteering, fundraising, making a bequest in a will, providing donations etc.  Do contact the hospice if you can help in any way.  Many of us help by being volunteers who deliver equipment, do maintenance,  assist the local hospice shop and/or distribution centre, support fundraisers or help with cooking good kai and culinary treats for the ‘Special Times’ in the lovely patient cottage at the hospice in Kerikeri.  ‘Special Time’ is  special ‘time out’  when patients can have rest, relaxation, reflexology, aromatherapy and massage (mirimiri) – again, free of charge.

Volunteers Kaikohe Hospice ‘opp’ shop

 

Having had a need, for a close family member to have hospice support, the caring, supportive attitude of the nurses and their professional skills made a deep impression upon our whanau.  If you know of a person with a need for palliative care then do discuss the hospice with them.   The hospice care is home based, which is often a great relief to the whanau.  The fact that this has no charge often makes things a lot easier! 

 

The writer was not aware, before becoming linked to the hospice when we faced palliative care, of the range of services that were available.  Consider, for example, nursing care, rehabilitation, pain control and rehabilitation, therapies, spiritual support, and practical and bereavement advice.  Some families, perhaps relatively self-sufficient, have been delighted that the hospice has provided a biographer to help the loved one record their life and times.  This becomes, in turn, a lasting taonga for the whanau. 

The Mid-Northland Hospice is Kaikohe’s hospice.  The Nurses  are driven by care, not distance.  We found them culturally sensitive and patient-focussed.  Our koha was a reflection of the support and skilled professionalism of the hospice team that eased our loved one’s passing.

 

If you wish to contact the hospice to volunteer, to donate time, skills or much needed finance, to find out how you could help or, especially, if you have a loved one who would gain from hospice support, then contact them at info@hospicemn.org.nz or telephone 09-4077799.  If you are a member of an organisation or community group you could also call the Mid-Northland Hospice and ask if they could supply a guest speaker at one of your meetings or evenings.   A Hospice Mid Northland volunteer.

 

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“To know hospice is there for me,  knowing you are there is like an angel on my shoulder.” Patient reflection.

 

Hospice Mid-Northland does need your help to keep services free of charge to patients. Annually we need to raise around $350,000.00 to keep our services at the level they are.  Can you ‘sponsor’ a nurse? Support an operational expense?  Every cent raised stays in the mid north community.  Check out how you can help hospice on line http://www.hospicemn.org.nz and visit our Hospice Needs Your Help web pages.  Alternatively you can reach Hospice Mid Northland on  ph. 09 07 7799 or by mail at PO Box 141, Kerikeri 0245.  

 

Palliative Care Nursing Team