Our Community Nurse Specialist team work right across Forth Valley, Cumbernauld and Kilsyth with GPs and District Nurses. The wider Hospice team regularly visit people in their own homes when this is the best way to respond to peoples’ needs. Then there is our Hospice@Home team who provide hands on care near the end of life if they want to stay at home. At any one time there will up to 350 people on our community books - all who need Hospice support.

In addition to our community work and perhaps less well known, Strathcarron Hospice also supports palliative care in our local hospitals. One of the Hospice Consultants spends most of their working week supporting hospital professionals to deliver the best of care to people with life limiting or terminal illness.

This week, we are losing one of our Community Nurse Specialists – as she goes to join the Specialist Palliative Care Team at Forth Valley Royal Hospital. Morven (Kellett) has been working in palliative care for more than 15 years. Twelve of these have been based at Strathcarron Hospice, where she worked in a community role. Last week she told me “Palliative care is my passion – where I can make a difference for people at one of the most difficult times in their lives.”

Morven will take all her expertise with her to the Hospital team and with her broad understanding of how the community and hospice services work, we know she will be a great asset. It’s so important to make the journey as joined up as possible for anyone who is supported by Strathcarron. Sharing expertise with ‘well kent’, skilled staff across the different settings can really help us to get it right for people when it matters most.