Wendy Allen, a social worker with Saint Francis Hospice’s Family Support Services team, talks about the impact the cost of living crisis is having on patients and families and how the hospice is able to help:
As a social worker, working to support patients and their families, I see the very real impact the current energy and financial crisis is having on a daily basis.
We are working to support people when they are most vulnerable and in recent months the increase in patients and their families getting into real financial difficulty is significant.
Patients are now coming to us, not only requiring support care for a life-limiting illness or condition but also with the additional worry of how they are going to pay fuel bills, buy food as well as access transport for hospital appointments which, for many of our patients, includes their travel for chemotherapy.
When a patient become ill and is no longer able to work, they and the ones they love are increasingly finding themselves in real hardship situations.
I am working with one carer whose week consists of going to the foodbank each week, her partner is no longer able to work and using the foodbank is the only way she can now stretch their limited income to feed their family.
As professionals working with cancer patients, we are able to access grants from Macmillan for those on low income and limited savings. The number of requests we are receiving for those grants are not only increasing, but also the nature of need is more and more often energy bill, food and basic needs.
Being part of the hospice multi-disciplinary team, I feel proud that we are able to wrap a whole range of care and support around the families we work with and to see the impact the financial burden can have at a time when focus should be on patient care is heart breaking.
The family support team, of which I am part of, has worked really hard over the last few months to bring together as many resources and information as we can.
One colleague has complied a finance directory and we have signed up to Macmillan to access grants and review all patients to ensure correct access to relevant benefits are made. But still more is needed.
Referrals to foodbanks and discussions in team meetings to see how we address supporting basic needs such as getting the laundry washed and keeping the home warm are now a regular occurrence.
As times get harder we are trying to find more creative ways to way to support our patients and their families to meet their basic needs of food and warmth.