Dear Volunteers,
We hope you and your loved ones are keeping well.
As with many front line organisations, this outbreak poses a massive challenge to our services for frail and vulnerable patients. During this difficult time our team is working hard to provide quality care for all residents and patients. Some services have been suspended (Day Hospice, CRU, RMDU) and visiting is only permitted in exceptional circumstances. All staff are working together and going above and beyond.
Despite challenges and delays caused by the current crisis, we are working away on fitting out Wicklow Hospice. There has been a great response to recruitment for this service. We are still planning to refurb Blackrock Hospice this year.
The HSE has listed some good resources here which you might find useful at this time: https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/4/mental-health-services/connecting-for-life/news/supports-and-services-during-covid-19.html
We are missing you but didn’t want you to miss out on the most recent issue of our in-house newsletter, the Hospice Herald. It was printed before the current situation escalated and so, it mentions some events that have since been cancelled or postponed. Also available here is the recent fundraising newsletter, the Hospice Times.
As an organisation that relies heavily on fundraising – our efforts have been severely affected by COVID-19. Unfortunately, we’re likely to have a shortfall of around €800,000 between March and June alone.
We are running an urgent appeal to encourage people to support us as many won’t have the opportunity to do so in their usual ways e.g. through the many events held by those in our community events or by participating in national events such as the women’s mini marathon.
If you follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube links below) you may have seen a video with our Director of Nursing and Quality, Mary Flanagan (on the right hand side of this page) We are delighted to say that our fantastic supporters responded really well and have donated almost €30,000 to date. We have two more videos coming up with Palliative Medicine Consultant Dr Norma O’Leary and with nurse Martina Slattery – keep an eye out online for these and please share them if you can!
We are still going ahead with the Spring Raffle and have even added a way for people to buy tickets online! If you know anyone that wants tickets, they can get them on our website here: https://olh.ie/fundraising/calendar-of-events/buy-raffle-tickets/
We will update you as soon as we know if Sunflower Days, due to take place on June 5th and 6th, is going ahead.
As we all get through this time, we know that you are with us in spirit and we look forward to seeing you again.
May your families stay safe and please spread the very firm advice that social distancing and good hand hygiene will defeat the virus sooner rather than later.
Audrey Houlihan, CEO, and all the team at OLH&CS
