The German Hospice and Palliative Association listed around 250 inpatient hospices for adults in April 2021. None of them are in the Ebersberg district. Since 2003 there has been a constantly growing palliative care unit at the district clinic there, which has been a valued haven for many seriously ill, dying and their relatives in the extremely challenging, very last phase of life. But not a place where people can spend weeks or even months preparing for the inevitable.
The “Hospice Island Glonn” has been offering this since this week. That’s really lucky. Because exactly such a place has been missing so far. For all patients who are discharged from the palliative care ward or who are cared for at home or in a retirement or nursing home, it turns out that the severity of the illness and the symptoms make care by trained palliative care professionals necessary. A place where you can die in peace and dignity, but where you have been alive for as long as possible beforehand. On the one hand, the people who are called “guests” there can be given appropriate medical care. There is still room for all the wishes and longings that even the terminally ill are allowed to have.
Not each and every one of them will be permanently bedridden. Then you need a space outside your own room, the feeling of being able to keep moving. And even if someone is mostly in bed, they can still benefit from art and respiratory therapy. From the meetings with volunteers from the hospice association who have time. For example, for conversations that you do not want to have with relatives because they are too painful.
And yes, you will definitely need a lot of handkerchiefs on this island. For crying. But also for laughing. This is an equally important part of holistic palliative care. As for the hospice movement, the main idea is that life may not be able to have more days, but days more life.
This is possible if you give more space to “public” dying. Creating places where death is visibly present without frightening the living. Where you can talk openly about fears and needs, but also about hopes and wishes. In which everyone involved finds relief in an incredibly challenging situation.
Some people would want to buy an island if they won the lottery. For many, this is a synonym for a tranquil, maybe even beautiful place where you can finally breathe deeply again. To let yourself fall. Find strength to carry the heavy. Good that there is a hospice island in the district.