18 May 2023
Harbour Hospice’s Open Doors (also known as Day Group) programme enables patients to benefit from Hospice care much earlier in their journey. It was also one of the first services Harbour Hospice offered when it was set up 40 years ago.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday our three sites become hives of excitement as patients, carers and volunteers arrive for our Open Doors programme. Music plays as they settle in to hear a presentation from one of our team or a guest speaker. Then there’s a discussion and the sharing of experiences before they enjoy a meal together, prepared by Harbour Hospice’s kitchen team.
Open Doors enables people to benefit from hospice care much earlier in their journey. It connects people in similar circumstances, prepares them for what lies ahead and encourages them to live well until they die.
And what makes it even more special is that it was one of the first services Hospice offered when it was set up 40 years ago.
Originally known as Daycare, it was run for the first two years out of a disused building on the grounds of the Orongo Rest Home in Campbells Bay.
One of Hospice’s founding volunteers, Margaret Broad, was asked to launch and coordinate the service and remembers scrubbing the rented rooms out with her friends and sister-in-law. They had to be resourceful to furnish them and make them feel welcoming. “We had to go round our friends and get pictures and cushions and coffee tables and things like that,” she said.
For the first session the women made sandwiches and soup and waited in anticipation for the patients to arrive. “But nobody came,” Margaret recalled. “This was a disappointing start and not quite what we had expected.”
The second session was more successful, with three patients attending with their spouses. Over the following weeks and months the group grew to 12. Margaret and her team of volunteers would pick up the patients to make it as easy as possible for them to attend - and this volunteer service continues to this day.
Right from the start Daycare had a profound impact on people. “One patient told us, ‘You’ve no idea how I’ve been counting the days till I come back here because I can be myself and I can use the word cancer and I can cry if I want to. With my friends, cancer is the big C and I could never really say anything about it, but coming here I can talk and I get a hug,’” Margaret says.
“Another lady told us she’d be bringing her husband even if she had to put him in a wheelbarrow because he liked it so much.”
One aspect the patients particularly enjoyed in those early days was the way staff would join them for lunch. As many as 25 people including spouses would turn out for these “community lunches”.
Hospice’s first nurse, Tricia Clarkson, remembers a lot of chat about rugby, religion and politics. “They really enjoyed the chance to get out and have a chat and tell a joke or two. Most of the people attending Daycare were used to being seen only by nurses, doctors and family carers. To get out and meet new people in a more normal way was really good for them.”
To celebrate the first birthday of Daycare, Tricia invited patients and their families to a special evening of reflection. Volunteer Barbara Miller recalls it being a beautiful evening “in very peaceful surroundings with a tape playing soft music”.
Tricia lit the candles that she had carefully placed on a table, surrounded by a circle of flowers. But the flowers were made of paper and went up in flames, causing a flurry. “We all had a good laugh and in fact that evening was very special.”
In August 1991 a local paper ran a story about Hospice’s new Daycare service and quoted some of the patients. One said, “It’s the day I look forward to because it puts me back in the world again. They make me feel very much a person and a special person too. It's like Sunday at the Ritz for me.”
A couple said, “Hospice has made such an incredible difference to our lives.... We imagined a group of very sick people all sitting around feeling sorry for themselves. But it’s not like that at all. It’s great fun and you don’t feel at all ill while you are there.”
Margaret concludes, “Orongo was never a sad place, there was always laughter and friendship and lots of hugs.”
To make a gift so people can continue to benefit from Open Doors 40 years on click here.
