Outreach success

A hospice outreach team pioneered in Cumbernauld is now being extended across North Lanarkshire. The scheme aims to harness the power of friendship to enable older people with life-limiting illness to remain at home. Called the community palliative care project, it was launched in Cumbernauld in January.

Two specialist community-based palliative nurses, from Strathcarron and St Andrew’s hospices, work closely with around 30 specially-trained befriending volunteers recruited by Voluntary Action North Lanarkshire.

Geoff Sage, St Andrew’s Hospice chief executive, said: “Patients want to be in their own homes, and by combining the expertise and compassion of the hospice nurses and volunteers we are committed to making that happen.”