We have a dedicated team of Nurses and Palliative Care Social Workers who are here to support you practically during your time with the hospice.
Personal Health Budget (PHB) and Social Team
How our PHB Team can support you
A Personal Health Budget (PHB) is a way of providing support based on what is important to you. It allows us to offer bespoke care and support in the form of goods, services or personal experiences which make a positive difference to your end of life care.
The hospice has a dedicated team who can work with you to complete a personalised assessment. This will help identify what is most important to you, to ensure your social and wellbeing needs and wishes are being met.
This service complements the care you receive already and is free at the point of access. The team can arrange for any goods, services, or special experiences to be put in place on your behalf to enable you to remain in your preferred place of care.
Who can have a PHB?
PHB support is available to anyone living in the Birmingham or Solihull local authority area who is in the final months of their life.
What support could you receive?
- Extra bed linen and towels that are needed.
- Support with your household chores.
- Memory-making items, such as memory boxes, hand casts and teddy bears that can play a recorded voice message.
- Help to mark special occasions that are important to you.
- Complementary therapy, hairdressing, and any self-care needs.
The PHB Team do not provide emergency care or care that is usually provided by your GP or another NHS service.
A PHB cannot be used to support any gambling, debt repayment, alcohol, tobacco, or anything unlawful.
I'm so grateful for everything the hospice has done for me."
Ian Murchington – Who got a VIP tour of Aston Villa's training ground thanks to the PHB Team
Our Social Team
Our Social Team can assist you with a range of bespoke support that is based on your individual needs. From financial and benefits support, to combatting loneliness and isolation, the team will ensure that you are supported with what matters most to you during your time with the hospice.
Palliative Care Social Workers
The Palliative Care Social Work Team is responsible for ensuring that the provision of a coordinated family support is delivered across both sites at Birmingham Hospice.
The team provides a whole range of support that is individual and important to the patient and family, which can include:
- Financial concerns.
- Benefit advice.
- Support with Wills.
- Power of Attorneys’.
- Housing.
- Guardianship.
- Safeguarding and funeral advice.
- Supporting with applications for both social and fast track packages of care.
The service provides patients and their families excellent social support, with a recognition of the diversity, values and human rights that may influence the decisions of our patients and families who use our services.
Befriending Service
Birmingham Hospice recognise that a Befriending Service has a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of a range of patient groups, but particularly those who are at risk of social isolation, and social exclusion.
The Befriending Service here at the hospice is managed by our Assistant Care Coordinator who arranges and provides support to patients through volunteers in the form of a regular telephone support, face-to-face visiting, a sitting service to allow carers a much-needed break, and outings for our more mobile patients.
In all cases the befriending service can make a positive and lasting difference to all of those involved and provide a foundation for a more positive and lasting change.
Our Befriending Service is supported by our trained Befriending Volunteers. If you’d like to find out more about how to become a Befriending Volunteer, please click here.
Palliative Care Support Register
Birmingham Hospice’s Palliative Care Support Register contains patient data which is used to improve communication and co-ordination in patient care, making end of life care more proactive.
The Palliative Care Support Register allows patient information to be shared amongst professionals when needed, which then allows patients to remain in the place of their choosing and with their preferred care package in place, without the need of being admitted to hospital at the end of their lives.
Patients who do not need specialist palliative care support can, with consent, be added to the Inactive Palliative Care Support Register. A member of the Social Team will send a letter to both the patient informing them of how to access support and advice from the hospice if needed, and a letter to the patients GP confirming that the patient continues to be supported by the hospice.
Contact our PHB and Social Team
If you would like to receive an assessment or have a discussion about how the PHB and Social Team can support you, speak to your healthcare professional who can then make a referral to:
The PHB and Social Team, Birmingham Hospice, 76 Grange Road, Erdington, Birmingham, B24 0DF
Tel: 0121 465 2000.
Referral forms can be downloaded from this website and must be completed and returned to hobs.social@nhs.net.
All our services are free of charge. Your donation makes a difference.
Donate
£20
Can buy a teddy bear with a recording of a loved one’s voice for a bereaved child to treasure as a keepsake.
Donate
£53
Pays for a bereavement support session to help a family member cope with the loss of a loved one.
Donate
£84
Pays for a community nurse to visit someone at home, helping them manage their symptoms and coordinating their care.
Donate
£157
Covers the cost of a home visit from an Occupational Therapist to help people to be as independent as possible.