„Over the course of my visit, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the way the work of the hospices is organized, the services they provide in the field, their in-patient care and day center, the expert services within the social work services and grief support, volunteering management as well as the modes of financing, number of employees, number of volunteers, etc. Due to the nature of its work, I was especially interested in the way that the service for psycho-social support (including grief support) is run, as well as the way that the work of the volunteers is coordinated, but most of all I have to underscore the strong impression left on me by the varied and interesting activities with the terminally ill patients within the day centers.“ said Mijodrag, but also added: „Unlike the situation in our own country, the main providers of palliative (i.e. hospice) care in the UK are charities like BELhospice. However, this doesn’t mean that they receive no support from the state – quite the contrary – one of these hospices is 15% financed by the NHS, while the other receives a whopping 75%. And bear in mind that the UK has hundreds of hospices. On the other hand, the hospices are extremely well integrated with the local community and connected to other government institutions. The basis of donating labour are „charity shops“, staffed by volunteers. The Hospice in the Weald has 23 charity shops and three furniture stores, the proceeds of which go into financing the work of the hospice. There remains much for our own government to learn and change in its relationship towards the organisations of civil society and hospice care in general.“

We would like to thank all the staff from our partner organisation Hospices of Hope for their hospitality and the organisation of this study tour. Many thanks are also due to all the staff of the Hospice in the Weald and Wisdom Hospice who have generously shared their knowledge and experience with our social worker Mijodrag.