End of Life
Cruse Bereavement 
Telephone: Day by day helpline: 0844 477 9400
Cruse Bereavement Plymouth
Plymouth, Devon
Telephone: 01752 408134
Hospiscare
Dryden Road, Exeter, Devon, EX2 5JJ
Telephone: 01392 688000
North Devon Hospice
Deer Park, Newport, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32 0HU
Telephone: 01271 344248
Rowcroft Hospice
Avenue Road, Torquay, Devon, TQ2 5LS
Telephone: 01803 210800
St Luke's Hospice
Stamford Road, Turnchapel, Plymouth, Devon, PL9 9XA
Telephone: 01752 401172
Palliative Care
“Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
Palliative care:
- provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
- affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
- intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
- integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
- offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
- offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their own bereavement;
- uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
- will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of an illness;
- is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.”
Dying Matters
Dying Matters is a broad based and inclusive national coalition of just under 14,000 members, which aims to change public knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards death, dying and bereavement.
Our members include organisations from across the NHS, voluntary and independent health and care sectors (including hospices, care homes, charities supporting old people, children and bereavement); social care and housing sectors; a wide range of faith organisations; community organisations; schools and colleges; academic bodies; trade unions; the legal profession and the funeral sector.
The Coalition’s Mission is “to support changing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards death, dying and bereavement, and through this to make ‘living and dying well’ the norm”. This will involve a fundamental change in society in which dying, death and bereavement will be seen and accepted as the natural part of everybody’s life cycle.
Changes in the way society views dying and death have impacted on the experience of people who are dying and bereaved. Our lack of openness has affected the quality and range of support and care services available to patients and families. It has also affected our ability to die where or how we would wish.
The Dying Matters Coalition is working to address this by encouraging people to talk about their wishes towards the end of their lives, including where they want to die and their funeral plans with friends, family and loved ones. Talking about dying makes it more likely that you, or your loved one, will die as you might have wished and it will make it easier for your loved ones if they know you have had a ‘good death’.
Tel: 08000 21 44 66 | www.dyingmatters.org
Cruse Bereavement 0844 477 9400
Death is a part of life, and grieving a natural process. Cruse is committed to breaking the stigma around grief and ensuring that everyone, no matter how old or young, can access the highest quality support following a bereavement. Not only does Cruse provide a telephone helpline and the useful information you will find on this website, but our trained volunteers provide face-to-face support and practical advice in branches across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. If you are a young person, you might also want to visit RD4U, where you can find helpful information and an interactive message board to share your stories and support others in a similar situation.
Extended opening hours
From Wednesday 1 June 2011, our national helpline will be open into the evenings on Mondays and Wednesdays, when our team of trained helpline volunteers will be working up until 7pm.
The national telephone helpline 0844 477 9400 is open for calls from 9.30am to 5pm working days, and until 7pm on Mondays and Wednesdays, answered mainly by a team of trained volunteers working in the special helpline area of our central offices in Richmond, Surrey. They have a lot of information available to them. We give information about benefits, listen to your story and give you information about Cruse locally where you live.
If you call and don't get through to us, please leave a message so that we are able to call back. There are sometimes more calls coming in than there are volunteers to answer them, so if you don't get through, do please try again.
