Compassionate Communities

Our Compassionate Communities approach is to empower people and communities in Central Lancashire to help themselves and each other, through palliative or end of life care and bereavement.

Compassionate communities happen when a network of local people and organisations (community groups, schools, employers, places of worship and public services) come together to support those with a life-shortening illness, are approaching the end of life or are bereaved.

Working with partners, the St Catherine’s Hospice Compassionate Communities project aims to strengthen communities of understanding and support, for people undergoing the experiences of death, caring, dying and loss across Central Lancashire.

There is already so much wonderful community support available in Preston, South Ribble and Chorley, often from charities, community groups and councils, tackling huge issues like loneliness and social isolation. We want to make sure that there’s also support on hand for people and their families in the last year of their life, or those with a long-term serious illness who aren’t going to get better (palliative care).

We want people to feel as supported at the end of life, as they do in the rest of their lives

Community support for someone who is living with serious illness, loss and grief, is so important and can make all the difference. People need their neighbours, colleagues, friends and family around them. So we want to help connect people, empowering our communities with the knowledge, skills and confidence to know what to say and how to reach out to others who may be going through a difficult time. Read on to find out more about the St Catherine’s Compassionate Communities team – from bereavement cafes to free training and more.

To get in touch with the team, please email communities@stcatherines.co.uk or call 01772 629171.

Talking: Death and Dying are a normal part of everyday life

Talking about death doesn’t make it happen any faster. In fact, it is never too early to start discussing what you’d like to happen at the end of your life. Death and dying is everyone’s business, so we can all do our bit to help and support each other. A good start is feeling more comfortable talking about it at our community events.

Compassionate Conversations

People often want to support others who are going through difficult times of serious illness and loss, but don’t know what to say. Our free two-hour awareness-raising session helps to build the skills and confidence to enable open, honest and sensitive conversations around end-of-life, loss and bereavement, while identifying ways to help and support others. Free to community groups and volunteers, please get in touch with the team to find out more, or to book a session.

A huge thanks to our Compassionate Community colleagues at St Luke’s Hospice in Plymouth, and St Elizabeth’s Hospice in Ipswich, for kindly sharing their training, for the benefit of communities in Central Lancashire.

Talk and Tours

We recognise that hospice, palliative and end of life care can be a bit of an unknown, and so can offer Talk and Tours for small groups. Up to four people can come in and meet with hospice staff and find out about the care we deliver, look around the inpatient unit and ask questions to clinical and non-clinical staff. Talk and Tours are suitable for community groups, health and social care professionals and teams working in the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise sector. We can also host larger-sized groups by breaking into smaller groups for the inpatient unit tour. If you’d like to arrange a visit, please email us at communities@stcatherines.co.uk.

Last Days Matter

A free half-day training course for anyone who’d like to know more about death and dying, how to make plans for the end of your life, what to expect when someone is dying, what happens after someone dies, and how to best support those left behind who may be grieving and need help and friendship. Courses run once a month and anyone is welcome to attend. Please get in touch via the contact details above to find out more or to book a session.

Please note, due to the subject content, this can be a highly emotional session but is run in a safe space by kind professionals, to offer advice and help you to think about what will help you or your loved ones in your final months, weeks and days.

Many thanks to our generous colleagues at St John’s Hospice in Lancaster, who developed this bespoke training, to benefit people and their loved ones at such an important time of their lives.

Please click here and search ‘Last Days Matter’ to see our upcoming sessions.

Planning: Advance Care Plans and sharing your wishes

What music would you like at your funeral? Do you want to be buried or cremated? What do you want your coffin to be made out of? Do you want people to wear black or a riot of colour?

Being prepared for the end of your life is more than having funeral plans in place. Have you arranged power of attorney? Do your friends and loved ones what your wishes are?

It’s never too early to make plans. There are lots of useful resources, to help you start planning on our website, as well as wellbeing tips, general advice around palliative and end of life care and support, information about local support groups including bereavement support, practical ideas for managing breathlessness, fatigue, and stress, and techniques for improved sleep and relaxation.

No Barriers Here

No Barriers Here is a unique and innovative approach to advance care planning for people and communities who experience inequity accessing palliative and end of life care. It was originally co-produced by the Mary Stevens Hospice with people with learning disabilities in 2019 and uses arts-based methods to support people to think about advance care planning, whilst ensuring the process is inclusive and accessible. Thanks to funding from Lancashire County Council, two staff members from St Catherine’s Hospice have been trained as No Barriers Here facilitators and will be piloting workshops with communities in Central Lancashire. Please click here for more information.

Supporting: bereavement and caring

The majority of bereaved people get by with a bit of help from their friends, family, neighbours, colleagues and community. Compassionate communities want to empower people to support each other, and increase confidence for people to feel they are saying the right things, and not making things worse.

Bereavement Cafes – peer-support

Bereavement Cafes are usually held in an existing café, community centre or hub on a monthly basis. It is a safe and welcoming place, with lots of shoulders to cry on and people in the same boat. People may just want to talk about their loved ones and reminisce. If you want a friendly listening ear and a brew, please come to one of our monthly pop-up bereavement cafes. We support monthly bereavement cafes in West Preston (Ingol), East Preston (Ribbleton), Gregson Lane and Chorley, with the help of amazing community hubs, places of worship, community groups and volunteers.

Please click here for more information. 

Talkin’ Tables 

Not so much about bereavement and grief specifically, you can join our weekly Talkin’ Table at the Mill Café for a warm welcome and chat, meet other people who are keen to make new friends and get out and about a bit more. Every Tuesday, 10am-11am.

Please click here for more information.

Carers’ and Bereavement support at the hospice

The St Catherine’s Support Team runs monthly drop-ins that are open to everyone. You don’t need to be known to the hospice, simply some along and meet with like-minded people to share experiences and advice.

Please click here for more information about the carers’ group, and please click here for details about the bereavement groups.

Annual Report 

An overview of our first 12 months’ journey working with partners, volunteers and hospice teams, to help help empower people and communities to support each other and talk about death, dying and loss.

Compassionate Communities Annual Report Aug 2022 – Jul 2023
Compassionate Communities Annual Report Aug 2022 – Jul 2023 (one page summary)