Our Services – Hospice Mid Canterbury

These are our core services. We also help families in many other ways with the support of local volunteers.
So whatever your needs, please feel free to contact us.

Client Support

Our wonderful team of volunteers are available to provide whatever support is needed, such as companionship, outings, sitting to provide a break for the carer, shopping, pet care, etc.

Biography Writing

This service provides people with a wonderful opportunity to reflect on their life, and create a record of their memories and stories for themselves and their families. Other written documents such as letters can also be prepared by biography writers.

Activities and Programmes

We offer a range of programmes at our Havelock Street base, including Armchair Travel, exercise therapy and chair yoga sessions, art and craft activities as well as a monthly “catch up cuppa”.

Counselling

Experienced counsellors are available to provide pastoral care, counselling and bereavement support to clients and their families throughout the end of life journey.

Acupressure

Acupressure (no needles) is a gentle therapy, helping to reduce pain, and encourage relaxation. Gentle finger pressure, applied over clothing to special points on the body, releases tensions and enhances well-being.

Reiki

A gentle holistic natural therapy. Energised hands soothe and balance the body, promoting relaxation and quality of life. service also available to carers.

Massage Therapy

Massage helps to relieve the stress, tension and anxiety associated with dealing with life-limiting illness. Relaxing neck and shoulder massage is also available to carers to help release tension.

Relaxation Therapy

Relaxation therapy incorporates a variety of techniques including Bowen therapy and Emmett techniques for body balance and muscle release. Relaxation therapy can help overcome anxiety, stress, panic attacks and sleeplessness.

Reflexology

A natural therapy, where pressure to the feet, hands or ears encourages relaxation and may relieve tension, stress and pain.

Leaving Dad on his own while I was at work was difficult. If hospice services had been available, I could have arranged for a volunteer to visit. Dad would have loved the company and it would have given me peace of mind.
Diane
I am truly humbled by the selfless work the hospice volunteer visitors do. Providing a friendly face and one not wearing a uniform gives the residents a contact with the ‘outside world’. Knowing that they had the gift of time was so important.
Jacqueline Heffernan
I have found Hospice Mid Canterbury a really great thing to have access to, and they have helped me deal with my condition a lot better, over the last year and a half. The people who I have met providing the services are a wonderful representation for Hospice. They are knowledgeable and compassionate and enhance the experience. I truly appreciate all and any help that Hospice Mid Canterbury provides, and would like to thank anyone who helps out in any way. It really does make a significant difference to people’s lives, such as myself.
Name not supplied
Theresa, who has been having Reiki sessions from Hospice Mid Canterbury volunteer Joanne for nine months, says it has made a huge difference to the quality of her life in the rest home. Joanne visits once a fortnight and gives Theresa Reiki for an hour each time, working from her head to her toes. Theresa believes a side benefit of the visits is that Joanne lets her ‘talk and talk and talk.’ “Hospice is doing a wonderful thing and I’m so very happy they sent Joanne into my life.”
Theresa
In many ways, I became a volunteer for Mid-Canterbury Hospice because of what I went through nursing my terminally ill husband in his final year. It would have been wonderful to have the services the Hospice offers for free: I would have asked for someone to sit with my husband while I had a sleep. As it was, I went a number of months with broken sleep, usually getting just an hour at a time before he woke up distressed. I became exhausted and barely coped.
Name not supplied