Share a moment with hospice this week

MEDIA RELEASE
Monday 17th May

Share a moment with hospice this week

Today is the start of Hospice Awareness Week (17 – 23 May) and hospices around the country need your help to spread the message of ‘living every moment’.

”We are very excited about our online campaign, launching today, it provides an opportunity for people to share an e-moment with those they care about, a practical interpretation of the hospice philosophy of living every moment” explained Ms Schumacher, CEO of Hospice New Zealand.

Many people believe that hospice is a building, when in fact it is a philosophy of care, which extends beyond physical needs, encompassing emotional, spiritual and social needs as well.

There are 35 hospice services throughout the country providing essential care and support for people with a life limiting illness, their families and friends, completely free of charge.

“Our goal is to help people make the most of their lives, to live every moment in whatever way is important to them” explains Ms Schumacher.

In response to this goal, Hospice New Zealand has created the ‘e-moments’ campaign, these are similar to online e-cards, it allows people to create and send a moment via email from the hospice website totally free of charge.

The inspiration for the e-moments campaign came from a well-timed, uplifting text message received on a bad day, completely out of the blue.

“We realised technology is a vehicle for spreading the idea of living every moment, creating something good and making people smile – all the while helping people to find out about the unique care and services provided by hospice ”

“The internet is an extremely cost effective medium for this type of activity, and thanks to a very generous donation from our long term friends at Dilmah, we are able to offer e-moments without charge.”

Ms Schumacher encourages people to try it. “If you’re feeling creative you can start with a blank canvas, adding your choice of images, quotes and words as well as a personal message and if you need a little inspiration there is a great selection of ready-made moments you can personalise and send to as many recipients as you like.”

“Through our work with patients and families we know that letting people know you care, that you are thinking of them can be a gift that makes a difference – e-moments are an opportunity for people to do just that – what a fantastic demonstration of living every moment.” Ms Schumacher says.

ENDS

Further information about Hospice
Hospice aims to improve the quality of life for people living with a life-limiting illness, helping them to make the most of every moment.

Hospices care for the person who is dying as well as their family and friends, working to meet the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of all.

Everything provided by hospice is completely free of charge. It costs over $70M a year to provide hospice services; currently around 70% comes from government the remainder is donated by the community through various fundraising activities.

Snapshot of services over the last year
• More than 13,300 people received care and support
• Hospice made more than 110,000 community visits to people in their homes and there were nearly 4500 admissions to hospice in inpatient facilities.
• More than 7000 people volunteered their time to work for hospice, giving more than 480,000 hours of their times in various roles.

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