Helping families to cope financially during end-of-life care

Wolverhampton families caring for loved ones with terminal illnesses can often find themselves struggling to pay the bills during their darkest times.

When families should be concentrating on spending precious quality time with their loved ones, they can increasingly find themselves in real financial difficulty and the situation has only been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis.

In a bid to make finances easier at the end of people’s lives, the City of Wolverhampton Council has joined forces with specialist palliative and bereavement support charity, Compton Care.

The council has allocated £100,000 from the government’s Household Support Fund for Compton Care to allocate to patients and their families to help with everything from food to bedding and one-off items of equipment to make patients more comfortable.

Over the last year Compton Care, which has been supporting people with life limiting conditions for over 40 years, has helped 359 patients and their families with £43,000 of the funding.

Leader of the council, Councillor Stephen Simkins, said:

‘It is heart-breaking to know people battling terminal or critical illnesses are also having to worry about money and can’t afford to buy enough food or heat their homes – none of which will help ease their pain or their comfort in their final days.

‘The cost of living crisis has just made this situation worse and means even more people have found themselves in this awful position. It’s essential we do everything we can to help and by joining with Compton Care, which does such great work across the Black Country, we can ensure this help reaches those who need it as quickly and directly as possible.’

Compton Care can help its patients in a wide variety of ways, from providing funds for clothing if someone has rapidly lost weight to buying new bedding if they now need to use a single bed or even just shopping vouchers to ensure people can do a good food shop.

Karen Evans, Business & Development Manager at Compton Care explained: ‘We are thrilled to be working in partnership again with Wolverhampton Council so that we can help our patients and their families even more during these challenging economic conditions.

‘Working collaboratively, we have been able to take away some of the stress and anxiety for people living with a life limiting condition and improve their quality of life.’

David and Carmella are two residents to have benefited from the scheme. They are patients of Compton Care and were referred by one of its clinicians for assistance.

During a routine visit by one of Compton’s clinical team members, David asked if it was possible to have help with the purchase of a new mattress for their bed, as the one they had had a big hole in the middle.

The clinician immediately contacted the Household Support Fund team to request this support. A member of staff contacted David the same day to discuss their needs.

During this conversation, David mentioned their cooker was broken, and they were eating ready meals they could microwave, but they were very costly.

It was decided to help the couple save money in the long term a cooker would also be purchased for them.

David said: ‘Without Compton’s support, we’d still be sleeping on that mattress with the hole.

‘We’ve been able to participate in family Christmas for the first time in two years. I hadn’t a clue what we were going to do about the cooker, so we’re so grateful because now we don’t have to worry, and that’s a good thing. Hot meals and a decent night’s sleep, we’re happy as Larry.’

These are just a few more comments from people who have been helped over the last year by the council and Compton Care:

‘Violet said she had received her shopping voucher in the post and could not thank the team enough for this… she said she will be sending a card to thank the team, but is genuinely grateful and appreciates every bit of Compton support she gets…’

‘Patient had received her voucher and was extremely happy. She stated nobody had ever helped her in this way before as she has never wanted to ask for help. We advised her to speak with Citizens Advice, as she stated she has got cancer in her eye and doesn’t watch tv but is still paying full price for everything. Just to receive this voucher had touched her heart she said and she was very grateful…’.

If you or a member of your family is critically or terminally ill and is struggling to cope financially please visit www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/cost-of-living-support or call 01902 290241 option 2 or Compton Care on 01902 774537.

if you’d like to do something to help and make a difference this year then Compton Care has just launched its Christmas Wish appeal, find out more here -  www.comptoncare.org.uk/support-us/christmas-wish/