Weston Hospicecare
Jen Wakefield-Brosius is the Day Service Manager at Weston Hospicecare. In 2023, Jen attended No Barriers Here Facilitator Training in Weston-super-Mare. Jen explains how she has utilised it in different ways.
“No Barriers Here has been a really incredible thing to offer. We opened up No Barriers Here as a dedicated hospice service so that other healthcare professionals could refer patients for an alternative way of participating in advance care planning. We received around 20 referrals in the first three months.”
Good Grief Weston Festival
Jen and the team delivered workshops as part of the Good Grief Weston Festival 2023 (Good Grief Weston 23 – Super Culture) in the community including a workshop in the Oldmixon estate community hub. This was followed by a further No Barriers Here workshop as part of Good Grief Weston Festival 2024 at the hospice itself and it was still well attended.
Using No Barriers Here workshops to open conversations about death, dying and grief
Jen has delivered the first workshop in several different environments and with people of different ages, including health and social care students at the local college.
“I gave them this activity to do and I was then able to better demonstrate that what they had identified as important in their lives translated into the service and care we deliver as a hospice. I’ve used the same activity with teenagers as a starting point for opening up conversations about loss and grief.”
The hospice invited a group of secondary school students and rather than speak to them about hospice care, Jen and the team invited them to participate in a No Barriers Here workshop.
“One teenager used the materials to illustrate relationships that were important to her and became emotional as she shared her story about a breakdown in a family relationship. Her teacher was visibly shocked, school had had no idea this had been going on and it explained the change in her recent behaviours.”
Jen has found being a workshop facilitator extremely beneficial and has also used the workshops with members of their Integrated Care Board (ICB).
“It’s a great focus for resetting and remembering why services are commissioned and how to we make the health system better for everyone – not just in palliative care. How do we undertake advance care planning as part of a strategy to help people live more well for longer?“
“We find a maximum of 8 for a workshop is the best for us, for our space and for the conversations that arise. We can’t thank Gemma and Jed enough for coming to Weston super Mare all that time ago and teaching us what this was and how to do it!”
Jen Wakefield-Brosius
Day Services Manager, Weston Hospicecare
