‘THE HOSPICES ARE A HOME from home for every patient’
The CEO of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation has opened up about how“palliative care changed and evolved”over the years — and the “incredible” people providing care at the hospices and in the community. Martina Jennings told Chic how she began working with the foundation, which will be marking its 30th anniversary this year, six years ago.
She said,“my previous career would’ve been in corporate, but as a volunteer I had built a cystic fibrosis charity in Mayo through a charity.
“I knew Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation was focused on getting hospices built in Mayo, and the vision was to have one in Roscommon as well.
“I really felt I could combine corporate and voluntary skills to get both hospices built, and develop the services even farther than what they were. There were great foundations laid by the founders and previous CEO.
“The Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation
is 30 years old this year. They had built it from one doctor and one nurse to a team of over 30 medical professionals in the community in both counties.
“The next level was then to get the two hospices built.
“I started in February 2017. We started the Mayo hospice in 2018 and we opened it in 2021. We started the Roscommon hospice in 2020, and that’s now open to patients as well. Within five years, we got both hospices open.”
Martina added that having two inpatient units, as well as the community team in both counties,“really brings the palliative care service to a high standard in the West”.
She said,“we’re really blessed and we have the best of medical professionals in both hospices and the community.
“They give a service that is just incredible. “The hospices are a home from home for every patient or family that go through there.
“They’re welcomed with open arms. Palliative care has changed, as well — it’s changed from just people who are at end-oflife care, it’s now people with life-limiting illness and their hope to live with the illness for as long as they can and for as well as they can, instead of focusing on end of life.”
Martina told how the patients — whether they’re in-patient or in the community — would have“life-limiting illnesses”, noting that while they have a“terminal diagnosis, it’s not always imminently”.
She said,“it is possible to live well with the right treatments.
“In the hospice, they offer day care services, which are really, really good. These patients embrace music therapy, art therapy — all of these kinds of alternative therapies that change their view on their illness.
“It really does help them to live with their illness.
“While they’re there, they see an occupational therapist, physiotherapist and all these additional therapies that help them live with the illness. There’s a huge focus on pain management, as well — and psychosocial counselling.
“And it’s not always about the patient, it’s about the family and caregivers as well and how to help them live with the diagnosis that they’ve been faced with.”
Martina added that palliative care has changed“so much over the years”— and her hopes for the service around the country in the years to come.
She continued,“the foundation started in 1993, 30 years ago. My own mother passed away at 49 years of age from a cancer that now, people are living much longer with and they can have a high quality of life with.
“Palliative care changed and evolved, much like every treatment for every illness.
“And we’re really lucky in Ireland — palliative care wouldn’t have had a huge focus on it before, but there is now.
“While we built both of our hospices with fundraised income — it cost over €60 million — and the funding that we give to palliative care services all comes from fundraising.
But the Government has stepped up, providing funding for both our hospices.
“We fund any shortfall, and we develop the services further — and we work in a partnership with an agency to do that.
“So, what I would like to see over the next
“I think they are really special people; they’re just all about the patients and families...”
few years is that there’s a consistency in the service across the country, across all levels — from adults down to children. There are pockets of the country that get a really, really good service.
“And I would consider the West now as one of the best — there are four hospice units in Connaught alone, and there are palliative teams in the community. It’s a seven-day service and treats everybody — that’s the way it should be.
“The West is where we should look to how palliative care is done. It’s not the same in every part of the country, but there is a huge focus to get it up there and get every county having the best palliative care service for the people that need it.”
Martina told how she reckons the documentary Inside The Hospice, which aired on Virgin Media One, will have a “huge impact”— and shed light on the “incredible staff”of the hospices around the country and those providing care in the communities.
She explained,“it gives a real inside view into what happens within the hospice — and it also highlights the incredible staff that work with patients and families, the staff of the hospices throughout the country and the communities.
“I think they are really special people; they’re just all about the patients and their families. I think it will have a huge impact on everybody to watch.”
Martina also opened up about how the discussions around hospice care in Ireland have changed over the years — and how it was something that she feels“needed to change”.
She said,“there was a huge discussion — and still is, to a certain degree — about going into hospice and being told you’re being transferred to hospice.
“But once the patient and the family get in there, the feedback that we get is that it’s the most special place they’ve been.
“And it’s the same when a patient has been referred to palliative care.
“And yet, when they meet the palliative care nurse and when that nurse comes into their home, they put everyone at ease.
“These nurses have an incredible aura about them, and they really are special people. And it’s no wonder that people call them angels when they come in, because they really do take that fear away.
“It’s the same when they go into the hospice. The staff are there and the patient is welcomed into open arms, as are the family.
“And without fail, they always say, ‘we should have gone in sooner’ or ‘we should have engaged with palliative care sooner’ if they hadn’t.
“It really does change the way that they look at their illness, the way that they look at their diagnosis and it really does help them to live as well as they can for as long as they have left.”
Martina told how there’s a“huge dependency on fundraising”, noting that“without that, the service wouldn’t be what it is”.
She said,“sunflower Days is coming up on the 9th and 10th of June, and it’s so important. It’s a national campaign, but all funds raised locally stay locally.
“And for ourselves in the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation, everything that we raise goes back into the service — into our hospice unit, and we fund the palliative teams in the community.
“We also provide our own family therapy services, which is hugely important while the family are going through a diagnosis or when they lose somebody, and afterwards, to help that family get through the trauma of what they’ve been through.
“There’s a huge demand for that service. All of our income, all of our fundraising, goes back into the services.”
Next weekend, there will be a special fundraising event held at Westport House as the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation was chosen as the charity partner for their Open Day.
And Martina told how“grateful”they were to the Hughes family for opening up Westport House for the event — and how all funds raised will go back into the foundation, and in turn the palliative care service.
She said,“it’s amazing — a family day at Westport House, it’s fantastic. And it’s a family day out for all the families.
“Westport House in Mayo, it’s just gorgeous and anyone that’s been to Westport needs to go to Westport House.
“For the Hughes family to open it up to us for the day — all funds raised on the day go towards the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation, which goes back into palliative care service.
“But this is a great day for everybody, for the whole family — and we’re just incredibly grateful to them for it.
“And we’re very lucky in Mayo, what Westport House has done for us — and we’ve another business, Mulroy’s Londis in Castlebar, that has donated a car that we’re currently running a raffle for. And it’s going really, really well so far.
“But to donate a car worth more than €40,000 — and to have all the proceeds from the draw go towards the foundation — it’s so generous, and we’re so grateful to the family.”
The foundation also has 12 hospice shops across Mayo and Roscommon — and Martina told how the shops, as well as the volunteers, are the“backbone” of what they do and that fundraising is “incredibly important”.
She said,“we wouldn’t be able to fund — for the palliative home care service in the community, we fund nearly 50% of those costs for the Roscommon hospice. We fund €300,000 a year towards the services within the hospice. The Mayo hospice is fully-funded currently by the HSE — but if there is a shortfall, we have to come up with the shortfall. And that can happen at any stage.
“We also fund the maintenance and any developments that are needed for the building, and also for future developments as well.
“The hospice started, as I said, 30 years ago with one doctor and nurse — and now in Mayo and Roscommon, we have two hospices, we have palliative care teams in the community, we have family therapists, we fund night nursing in association with the Irish Cancer Society.
“And it’s crazy that in another 30 years, with fundraising the way that it’s going, we’ll continue to develop in the same manner.”
For more information about the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation or to donate, visit www.hospice.ie. To enter into the raffle, visit winacar.hospice.ie.