Compassionate Communities

Our Compassionate Communities approach aims to empower people and communities in Central Lancashire, to help themselves and each other, through death, dying and loss.

Compassionate communities happen when a network of local people and organisations come together to support people in the last year of their life, aren’t going to get better (are receiving palliative care) and for people who are bereaved.

Through training, events, talks, tours and working in partnership, we want to build confidence and resilience in death, dying and loss across Chorley, South Ribble and Preston. Death is a natural part of life – so let’s talk about it and support each other.

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 build on existing strengths in communities to help people navigate life’s final stages with care, support and compassion.

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. We want to help connect people and empower our communities with the knowledge, skills and confidence to reach out to others who may be going through a difficult time. Read on to find out more about our bereavement cafes, free training and more.

If you can help us to build confidence and resilience around death, dying and grief, please get in touch with the team. Email communities@stcatherines.uat-web.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. We can support and encourage people to talk about it, at one of our training and awareness sessions.

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. Come in to our beautiful site in Lostock Hall, 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 anyone who wants to learn more about hospice care and services, such as community groups, health and social care professionals and teams working in the third sector, or VCFSE (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.uat-web.co.uk.

Last Days Matter

“I just wanted to let you know how much the course prepared me for mums passing. Sadly, Mum died last week. The training made a positive difference to the difficult time I was going through. It also helped to see that others were struggling too – often you think it’s only you!”
Paula from Ashton, Preston

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. Sessions run most months and all are welcome to book on.

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.

Dying Matters Week 

This annual UK campaign in the first week of May, led by Hospice UK, aims to break down the stigma and taboo of talking about death and dying and to encourage people to think about their future care wishes. The team runs events at the hospice and in communities with compassionate partners. Could you host your own ‘dead good cafe’ session, or GraveTalk event? We’ve got some great ideas and are delighted to support where we can. Get in touch for more information or to get involved.

It’s also a time that we invite Faith Leaders in from across Central Lancashire, to learn from each other and about different cultures, religions and faiths, around death and the afterlife, and how to have these tender conversations. Dying, love and loss is one of the core things that unites us as human beings.

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 in people to talk about loss and remember loved ones.

Bereavement Cafes – peer-support

Our monthly Bereavement Cafes are a safe and welcoming place, that offer peer-support for people who are bereaved to meet others who are bereaved. Run by amazing volunteers, you can talk about your loved ones and reminisce, just listen to other people’s stories and have a brew. Run in partnership with seven churches and a gardening charity, they happen once a month in West Preston (Ingol), East Preston (Ribbleton), Gregson Lane (afternoon and evening cafes) and Chorley.

We are very grateful for the support of these amazing community hubs, places of worship, community groups and volunteers, who together with our hospice volunteers, support 30-40 bereaved people a month.

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 at the Mill. Please click here to see the Mill Cafe flyer

The Chorley-based charity New Friends for You run this ‘chatty cafe’ scheme, and there are dozens of venues that have Talkin’ Tables. You could even visit a different once every day of the week! Visit the Talkin’ Tables website for more information.

Carers’ and Bereavement support at the hospice

Our 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.

Proudly part of the Compassionate Communities Social Movement

The team at St Catherine’s started in August 2022, thanks to our inspirational palliative care consultant, Dr Claire Capewell. St Catherine’s hospice have been incredibly well supported by other wonderful hospice teams both in our North West hospice collaborative and across the UK, who have been kind enough to gift us their tried-and-tested-training, ideas and inspiration – or even a friendly phone call or supportive meeting on Teams. A great introduction is Professor Allan Kellehear’s video – one of the founders of this worldwide social movement.

If you’re interested in developing your own compassionate communities, working with us as a partner, requesting a talk about hospice care and services or to arrange a visit, please contact us via email communities@stcatherines.uat-web.co.uk or call 01772 629171. Together, we can make a difference.