Julia's House

The aim of Julia's House is to maximise and enrich the quality of life for Dorset children and young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. We provide support from diagnosis to death and beyond for the whole family. We offer multi-disciplinary end of life care in our hospice building or in the family home.

Our objectives

• To work in partnership with the child, family and relevant statutory and voluntary agencies, to provide child-centred, family-led care in the setting most suitable to their needs which improves the quality of life of the child/young person and their family
• To provide continuity of care which can be flexible to meet the changing needs of the child and family, by ensuring that the child has an identified, named care team
• To provide high quality care by ensuring a multi-disciplinary approach to care and ensuring that all staff are appropriately trained with relevant experience, whilst recognising everyone's individual abilities and training requirements
• To comply with and work to the National Minimum Standards in all areas of care and administration throughout the Julia's House Care Team
• To encourage all children to reach their full potential by protecting them from abuse and bullying in compliance with Julia's House policies
• To ensure that service delivery is sustainable, the agency will maintain close working relationships with all aspects of the Charity, particularly the domiciliary care and nursing agency in order that sound forward financial planning and budgeting is achieved

Nature of services provided

All our services are free of charge to all families - no direct payments are accepted.

Julia's House provides respite services both in the hospice and in the community. This service is staffed by qualified children's Nurses, Nursery Nurses, staff with (or working towards) NVQ Level 3 in Care, and staff with appropriate play/developmental training. Staff are supported by a medical practitioner and pharmacist.

Respite takes the form of:

• Day care within the hospice for up to eight children per session (subject to the nature of the session and the children included)
• Limited overnight accommodation for a maximum of four children (subject to the specific needs for the individual children) and registration pending. The service to commence following registration
• Community-based respite in the child's own environment
• Multi-disciplinary end-of-life care for children on an existing client base in the setting most suitable to the needs of the child and family, hospice or community based
• Specialist activities e.g. IT, music and play, facilitated by appropriately trained and insured staff
• Appropriate bereavement and post bereavement support to the individual and family group, working with associated agencies
• Sibling support for young people aged up to fourteen years. Developing a programme of workshops and facilitating group work, staffed by designated sibling workers
• Complementary therapies as appropriate for individual children and their families using appropriately trained and insured therapists
• Support and advice for family members as appropriate including signposting to advocacy services