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Hello everyone,

As we emerge from the influences of COVID-19 and life begins to resumesome semblance of normal, I trust you all well and ready to approach the roadahead with gusto. The past few months have been, perhaps life altering, formany. There is no doubt that it has provided an opportunity for us to take stock.What that means for each of us will be quite different. I hope in all of this thatthe common theme might be that life is beautiful, a precious journey full of greatwonder - to be enjoyed and for us to try our best to make every moment reallyspecial.

I guess I hope that the world will be a nicer, kinder place where we all have timefor each other and focus on the things in life that really matter. National Volunteers Week –18 May to 24 May 2020This week is really special - it'sNational Volunteer Week - atime to recognise and celebratethe contribution of volunteers inour organisation and acrossAustralia. Without volunteers, KRCH would not exist. Volunteers contribute somuch to our organisation and we are indebted to you all.

Volunteering contributions across Australia are conservatively valued at $6billion per annum. That is remarkable and makes me wonder where we’d bewithout that contribution. Thank goodness for volunteers is all I can say.

The reasons people volunteer are manyfold. The 3 primary reasons are;

A connection with the cause - contribution.Social contact - making new friends/acquaintances.Training / upskilling – formal and informal.

Whatever the reason we are humbled by the knowledge that KRCH hasattracted 300+ volunteers in about 3.5 years. Across the organisation, wecontinue to marvel at the people and the skill sets our volunteer team bring –incredible business knowledge, finance, marketing, social media, horticulture,building, engineering, IT, retail, merchandising, logistics and the list goeson. Of course, it not just the skills volunteers bring to the table, it is theirhumanity. Our people are the very best – so many wonderful personalities, somuch commitment from everyone and so much fun.

To all of you, this week is special. We celebrate YOU and thank YOU forchoosing to give of yourselves for KRCH. But it is not just for this week, it is allthe time – everyday of the year. I’ve shared this before but every working dayabout 50 people get up and give of themselves for KRCH. That isremarkable. Thank-you.

National Palliative Care Week – 24 May to 30 May 2020

Next week, we celebrate palliative care week. It’s a chance to say thank you toall involved in the provision of a very specialised kind of nursing / medical care.The care of those at the end of their journey.

It is a very significant stage in one's life and really up until recently, it had beenan undervalued area of medicine / health care. As time has gone on, thankfully,many of us now understand the value of a good death – death is part of life.

Palliative care is person and family-centred care provided for a person with anactive, progressive, advanced disease, who has little or no prospect of cure andwho is expected to die, and for whom the primary goal is to optimise the qualityof life.

End-of-life care is the last few weeks of life in which a patient with a life-limitingillness is rapidly approaching death. The needs of patients and their carers arehigher at this time. This phase of palliative care is recognised as one in whichincreased services and support are essential to ensure quality, co-ordinatedcare from the healthcare team is being delivered. This takes into account theterminal phase or when the patient is recognised as imminently dying, deathand extends to bereavement care.

Palliative care is care which helps people live their life as fully and ascomfortably as possible when living with a life-limiting or terminalillness. Palliative care identifies and treats symptoms which may be physical,emotional, spiritual or social. Because palliative care is based on individualneeds, the services offered will differ but may include:

Relief of pain and other symptoms e.g. vomiting, shortness of breathResources such as equipment needed to aid care at homeAssistance for families to come together to talk about sensitive issuesLinks to other services such as home help and financial supportSupport for people to meet cultural obligationsSupport for emotional, social and spiritual concernsCounselling and grief supportReferrals to respite care services

Palliative care is a family-centred model of care, meaning that family and carerscan receive practical and emotional support.(Extract from Palliative Care Australia website -2020)KRCH works closely with a range of professionals, Palliative Care Queenslandand the State Government to deliver high quality palliative care. Our talentedteam continue to deliver the very best care not just for the patient / guest but forthe family and friends. We work to support all in these difficult, challengingtimes. We’re proud to deliver our service. We’re part of a group of hospices andoutreach services across SE Qld working hard to ensure people are beautifullycared for at the end of their lives.

Our thanks must go to the nursing and personal care team, supported by thehospice support team volunteers for showing up every day to care for thepeople we have the privilege of meeting, and caring for. To our team, we saythank-you and we want you to know that we appreciate what you do.

This week let's all give thanks to the Palliative Care Australia, Palliative CareQld, the institutions and people who care for those souls amongst us who areliving with life-limiting and terminal conditions. We are indeed fortunate to havethese organisations and people and their contribution makes the world a betterplace.

Administrative ServicesOur team continues to work hard to ensure we access all funding opportunitiesin these challenging times. We had some successes (Taxation relief,JobKeeper etc) and they have helped us prevail. We were advised recently thatwe were successful with another source of one-off funding provided by theQueensland Government – we await more details but all of these successescontribute to our continuing this service.

I’d like to thank the Admin team who have ensured the organisation continuesto power on in these times. I’d also like to again thank our Finance team,specifically Les Godwin (Treasurer) and John Loveridge (KRCH FinanceOfficer) for their great work ensuring everything required by government wasdone ahead of time, thus giving us the best chance to access support promptly.

We recently appointed Cogill Woods Legal (Daren Cogill) as our new lawyers.We’re really excited by their desire to support us. They are a local Noosavillefirm and already have a strong community focus. Their first task is to provideadvice relating to the simplification of our Constitution. We look forward toreceiving their advice, re-drafting the Constitution and presenting the revisedversion to our membership.

Hospice ServicesOur hospice continues to provide itsbeautiful service. We have now served 70people and cared for their families andfriends. The overall influence of ourorganization would be in the 1000srecognising that many of those who comehere have large families and many friendsacross Australia and the world.

It was a busy weekend with 2 gents passing in the beautiful care of our team.As is always the case, the people around these gents were appreciative that wewere here. Our team provided their usual incredibly professional, yet beautifulservice to ensure that these men were looked after and cared for until the veryend.

We now have 2 more guests in the house, a lady and a gent. Rest assuredthey’ll be cared for beautifully by our incredible team.I’ve said this many times before, in different ways, but the care here isextraordinary. Each life, every person is honoured and treated with such dignity,respect and kindness. I am a little removed from the day to day but close enough to see the love, careand attention that our entire team give to our guests, their families and friends.For those of you who don’t witness this but who work tirelessly to supportthe cause, I can assure you that this service is remarkable, it’s humanity at itsbest, and you can be proud knowing that you are part of the team.

I guess what I get to witness is the sum of many things – the care, the love, theenergy in the facility, the environment, the giving, the involvement of the teamincluding all of our gardeners and our maintenance team. It’s difficult to put intowords but you know, it is really special. In the end, it’s all about 300+ peoplebeing committed enough to make a difference and choose to be of service.

Retail ServicesWOW!!!!!!!!!We re-opened for business on May 18 and were overwhelmed by the publicresponse. Our shops had their best days.

We were a little unsure we would have the teams to open but our amazing shopvolunteers showed up – keen to get back to work. A BIG thank you to all of youfor returning and helping us to get the retail section going. I’ve visited the shopsthis week and you can feel the excitement – people are pleased to be back andmost of all, I felt everyone was having fun. It is also great to see shoppers outthere after our enforced isolation / distancing.

The shops are a really important part of our business model and budget wisetheir loss over the past few months has been noticeable. How long it takes usto return to ‘normal’ is anyone’s guess but if this week is anything to go by, itmay not take long.

I would also like to thank-you our retail managers for their great work over theshut down period. They ensured their shops were ready to reopen, developedthe online shop (a work in progress) and made a point of staying in touch withour volunteer team.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our respective landlords aswell who all have helped us out by recognising that we’re all in this together.Their rent reductions have been much appreciated.

In closing I’d like to thank you all for takingthe time to read this short update. I hope you

have found it interesting and informative.

Sincerely,

John Gabrielson

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Katie Rose Cottage Hospice Ltd · 199 Beddington Rd · Doonan, Queensland 4562 · Australia

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