** About St Christopher's Hospice End of Life Care and Education **
Dame Cicely Saunders founded St Christopher’s in 1967 as the first hospice to link expert pain and symptom control, compassionate care, education and clinical research. St Christopher’s has been a pioneer in the field of palliative medicine, which is now established worldwide. Everyone is welcome at St Christopher's, and everyone is valued—whatever their race, religion, or lifestyle.
We serve a diverse population of 1.5 million people in the London boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, reaching some of England’s most deprived areas.
St Christopher’s care services are delivered in a range of settings including patients’ own homes, our four inpatient wards and our Anniversary Centre: palliative care delivered by specialist doctors and nurses; physiotherapy and occupational therapy; social work and welfare support; adult bereavement services’ psychiatrist support; creative therapies and activities; complementary therapies’ spiritual; care; and specialist support for bereaved children.
We are a registered charity. It costs over £14 million every year to deliver all our services. Only about one third of our income comes from the NHS. We must raise more than £9 million to continue to delivery our patient and family services free of charge. This balance must be raised from grants, legacies, the generous support of our local community, local businesses, trusts and through our shops.
History Of St Christophers Hospice
** History **
In founding St Christopher's in 1967, Dame Cicely Saunders made an extraordinary contribution to alleviating human suffering. The hospice has been a centre of innovation and insight ever since.
So what were things like before St Christopher's?
By the 1950s, social trends were changing and most people died in hospitals rather than in their own homes. This change reflected the growing number of treatments available in hospitals. The medical profession increasingly saw death as failure.
Cancer was the most feared diagnosis. Physical pain afflicted at least three quarters of cancer sufferers and appropriate painkillers were rarely used. Morphine was considered addictive and too dangerous.
Led by Dame Cicely, St Christopher's set out to discover practical solutions and to disseminate them widely. There were, of course, other hospices before St Christopher's. These hospices were oases of dedicated nursing care for the terminally ill, but they were not what we now think of as modern palliative care. In contrast, St Christopher's was committed to education and research, as well as excellence in clinical care.
This combination of science, care and sharing of experiences identified the opening of St Christopher's Hospice with the start of the modern hospice movement.
