Family Support

Art Therapy and Music therapy use creativity to help with people’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. The Therapists will work with you and your children and whānau throughout the time of illness, dying and bereavement.
The Therapists may help children and families work through and express emotions that may be difficult to talk about, facilitate calming and uplifting music and art making, support the making of legacy gifts and evoke relaxation, distract from the pain, aid sleep and calm breathing.

Care for families and whānau does not stop when a loved one has died. Grief and bereavement, although a normal process, can also be an unpredictable process and people sometimes need support at different times. We offer and provide support in many ways from bereavement care, follow up phone calls, support groups and counselling support if required.

Coffee & Chat Bereavement Support Group 2024

Second Wednesday of the Month, 10:30 to 12pm at Te Omanga Hospice.

14th February, 13th March, 10th April, 8th May, 12th June, 7th July, 14th August, 11th September, 9th October, 13th November, 11th December 2024. 

After a loved one has died there are a new set of challenges that face the family and whānau.

Grief and bereavement, although a normal process, can be unpredictable and involve many emotions. Come along and meet with others who have also experienced the death of a loved one.

This group is for people who have had a loved one under the care of Te Omanga Hospice.

Please RSVP to our Family Support Team. Jeanette ph 0211933919 or Serena ph 0211930745, to confirm your place.

The Biography Service was established in the mid 1980s as a way for a person who has a life limiting condition to reflect, review and record their life experience.

The focus has always been on what it can do for the person in our care. We discovered that the story is secondary in the process – it is what happens to the storyteller in the telling of their story that is the most important part. It is a therapeutic process and one they have control of when so often there is a lot they can’t control.

Sometimes someone will relate, in confidence, something to the biographer and request to not have it written down. These narratives often offer the most therapeutic effect.

A specially trained Biography Volunteer will record and transcribe your story – or only that part you wish to be recorded. When your story is published, copies are given to you, your family and whānau, as you decide.

Living with a life-limiting condition or experiencing grief and loss can be a challenging experience. Counselling provides you with the opportunity to validate, reflect on and make meaning of the changes that are happening for you and your whānau.
Counselling can support you and others important to you, allowing for thoughts, feelings and responses to grief and loss to be explored and understood. It can support challenging conversations about death and dying. The counsellors provide support throughout the time of illness, death and dying and whānau support in bereavement.

Contact: 0800 136 136

Email: counsellor@teomanga.org.nz

Family Support Volunteers are trained specifically to support a person living with a terminal illness, and their family. Our volunteers establish a friendly and supportive relationship with the patient and their family. They offer support through a friendly phone call, or driving and social visiting, giving carers a break to go to an appointment or do the groceries.

Our kaupapa is committed to the well-being of whānau, hāpu, and Iwi. Māori Liaison provides support for you and your whānau through whakawhanaungatanga, supporting you and your whānau with questions about Te Omanga Hospice services and any cultural concerns and needs.
Māori Liaison supports your tikanga requirements pertaining to your whānau, hāpu, and Iwi through manaakitanga, karakia, waiata. Wairuatanga blessings and Tangihanga can be arranged through referrals to extended whānau, local marae, churches and religious ministers, kai karakia, pakeke, kaumatua and kuia.

The goal of our Occupational Therapist is to enable you to engage in your meaningful occupations as independently as possible while maintaining quality of life during your palliative care journey.
This may include the following:

• An assessment of your physical and cognitive function, including activities of daily living; self-care, productivity, and leisure
• Environmental assessment to ensure yours and your family members safety
• Provision of equipment to enable independence and safety if required

Education for you and your family in some of the following areas:

• Transfer techniques
• Pressure care
• Fatigue management and energy conservation
• Breathlessness techniques
• Maintaining routine
• Adapting to change/loss in roles

Our Physiotherapist has specific training and skills that enable them to support you in many ways including:

• Assisting in the management of pain, fatigue, neurological issues, and general deconditioning
• Assessing your exercise tolerance and designing an individualised plan for you
• Providing practical advice for your whānau on how to assist you with physical activities.

Our hospice social workers assist with the many practical issues facing patients and their whānau. They will assess both the patient’s and the whānau needs to understand what extra assistance may be required. This includes helping with conflict resolution and family meetings, financial problem solving and obtaining benefits. They can also support patients and families with the process of arranging Wills and other legal issues, and funeral planning.

Spiritual Care support is provided by our Spiritual Care Coordinator. As spirituality is very personal and individual, spiritual care support is tailored to each person’s needs. This may mean connecting with wider spiritual resources in the community. We will respect your culture, values and beliefs, choices, experiences and diversity.

Our Spiritual Care Coordinator offers an opportunity to explore and reflect upon ways of expressing spiritual discomfort such as vulnerability, sadness, regrets, losses; questions you may have; and equally to explore loves, joys, hopes, friendships and all that has been most precious to you.

Throughout the year, Spiritual Care is offered in the form of rituals to remember such as Remembrance Services, Garden of Appreciation blessing, and other rituals requested or needed by families/whānau and Te Omanga staff.