ABSTRACT
Weston Hospicecare, UK, provides specialist palliative care for the town and surrounding villages, covering a total population of approximately 150,000 people. The hospice mainly focuses on developing and enhancing naturally occurring supportive networks that surround patients and their families. In addition to the usual specialist palliative care approach of the physical, social, psychological and spiritual, the hospice, as an organisation, has developed increasing interest and expertise in public health approaches to end-of-life care. Caring at the end of life requires help from a variety of sources. One of the roles of the community companion was to support carers to develop their own informal networks. The community companion enables the carer to examine their network and look to see who could be more effectively involved. The hospice is starting to work with businesses, schools and other organisations, as well as community groups, to develop and enhance naturally supportive caring networks at end of life.
