A warm welcome to my fundraising webpage for HCA Hospice Care!

I have been volunteering with HCA Hospice Care for the past 10-11 years. I started off volunteering as a home befriender where I visited and interacted with home care patients and their family members once a week. I have also volunteered in various events (e.g. outings organised by for home care patients, Project Cheer, sunflower remembrance day, etc.). Currently, I volunteer in the capacity of a member of HCA’s Public Relations and Public Education committee and a writer for HCA’s bi-monthly newsletter.

My little and humble fundraising initiative for HCA Hospice Care stems from my belief that patients with life limiting illnesses should be provided with care that allows them to lead, as far as possible, a good quality of life despite their condition and for many of them, a peaceful and relatively pain free life before they move on from this life. This belief of mine is constantly reinforced when I get the opportunity to interact with the patients (under HCA’s care) and/or their family members.

Support HCA Hospice Care by making a generous donation to them today so that their medical and nursing teams can continue to make about 40,000 home visits a year, while their day hospice can continue to provide care for an average of 25-30 patients a day.

Introduction to HCA Hospice Care

HCA Hospice Care was established in 1989 with home hospice care as its primary service. It has benefitted over 60,000 patients with life-limiting illnesses since its inception. As the largest home hospice service provider in Singapore, HCA takes care of about 70% of home hospice care patients locally. The service is provided free of charge regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, nationality and/or financial standing.   HCA has made close to 40,000 home visits to about 3,800 patients in FY2014/15 and at any one time, some 850 patients with life-limiting illnesses are cared for. Its dedicated clinical teams were able to achieve good outcomes with 56% of its patients being able to pass on in their homes (as per their wish) and 98% of them being symptom-free at the time of death.   HCA’s day hospice centres see to a patient’s needs away from home, catering to those who are able to walk or are safely mobile in a wheelchair, and who do not require 24-hour nursing assistance. HCA has cared for more than 250 patients who make an average of 9,600 visits in FY2014/15.

All donations towards HCA Hospice Care will go towards funding its home hospice, day hospice and Star PALS (a paediatrics palliative care service for patients who are 19 years old and below) programmes.

Interesting Finding From Lien’s Foundation’s “Death Attitudes Survey”

Here are a few pertinent findings from the Lien’s Foundation’s “Death Attitudes Survey” conducted in 2013:
- 77% of Singaporeans expressed their wish to die at home, to spend their final days in the embrace of their loved ones and friends and in the familiarity of their own homes. However, government statistics show only 27% of deaths in Singapore take place at home.
- 81% of Singaporeans rate control over pain relief and other symptoms as one of their top priorities at the end of life. However, about seven in ten people in Singapore pass on without being given palliative care.