About Us
What Overgate Hospice Do
Overgate Hospice aim is to care for the whole person to give them the best possible quality of life. Overgate Hospice provide support for their families and carers. Treatment is based upon an approach that treats each person as an individual. Overgate Hospice care for the “whole person” including their physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs.
Overgate Hospice service is open to all who meet our eligibility criteria, regardless of race or creed.
- Hospice Film
- Mission Statement
- The History of the Hospice
- Equal Opportunities
- Care Quality Commission
Overgate Hospice Mission Statement:
Mission
- Overgate Hospice is a charity providing specialist palliative care for the people of Calderdale living with a life limiting illness.
Philosophy of care
- We care for the whole person and their family, friends and carers.
- We respect patient’s priorities and strive to enable them to achieve their personal goals.
We Value
- The support of our community through fundraising and volunteering and in all aspects of hospice life.
- Team work and Professionalism
- Diversity in our staff, volunteers and all those we care for.
Introduction
- Photograph courtesy of Janet Jones Photography
Sylvia Graucob first came to live in Overgate, the family home of her husband Find when they got married. On the same plot as Overgate stood another house Hazeldene, with magnificent rose gardens surrounding both.
It was not long before Sylvia fell in love with the house. Many years of happy marriage passed within its walls, and she always found it a peaceful place to be. It was only when Find became ill that the couple decided to move to Jersey. The houses were at this time owned by the company, Nu–Swift, which Find had founded and successfully built up in Elland. Two years later Find unfortunately died.
When Sylvia returned to the house she spent many hours wandering through its emptiness, and it was at one of these times that she had the idea to do something with the house so it wouldn’t be sold and converted to smaller houses, which was the fate of the large property next door.
Sylvia looked into buying the house and gardens from Nu-Swift and was successful in purchasing them. Her first idea was to perhaps have it as an elderly people’s home. While she was thinking about the possibilities it was made known to her that two doctors in the area were looking to purchase a large property in which to create the first ever Hospice for Calderdale.
Dr Quinn
Finally in 1979 Sylvia met with Dr Quinn, one of the founders, who inspired her with his vision of what a hospice could provide for the community. In those days there were only 60 hospice’s in the whole country so barely anybody knew much about them. Sylvia recalled her mother saying "you can’t call it a 'hospice'", not realising they were a rare, but already established institution in the UK.
Sylvia believed that Dr Quinn and the committee behind him, would be able to put her beloved Overgate to good use and so it was handed over shortly afterwards. Sylvia and Find had once brought a large rusty coloured key home from a Palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice, and with the Halifax Courier present to record the occasion, the key was symbolically handed over. Dr Quinn suggested the name ‘Graucob House’ but it was thought that might cause many spelling mistakes! Sylvia suggested Overgate instead, thus keeping with the old name.
From its beginnings Overgate relied heavily on volunteers to help establish it. In the first ten years Sylvia came once a month overseeing the renovations and there were three particularly committed volunteers Mrs Stephanie Rourke, Mr Philip Taylor and Mr Douglas Calvert who did a great deal for the hospice. To this day Overgate relies very much on the goodwill of the community and volunteers who carry out a variety of roles from serving tea to fundraising.
In 1981 the first part of the building to open was the upper floor, which had been the family bedrooms, as an inpatient hospice. At the same time the first Palliative Care nurse post in Calderdale was introduced and it made sense for the nurse to be based at the Hospice. The links between what became known as the MacMillan nursing service and the hospice were forged in those early days. Later when the MacMillan service became much larger it moved to the Cancer Unit opened at Calderdale Royal Hospital though both services still work closely together.
Growth
The demand for the hospice grew and in 1994, following a major fundraising appeal, a new purpose built inpatient unit with 12 beds was opened by the Duchess of Norfolk. Overgate Hospice is the leading provider of palliative care in Calderdale along with its partnership organisations.
A Day Hospice was opened in 1995 on the first floor of the house. The aim was to provide supportive palliative care to those with life threatening illness such as cancer, Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis, prior to the need for inpatient care.
The Day Hospice has also considerably expanded with its own purpose built space opening in 2005. In 2008 it opened five days a week offering a warm, friendly and caring environment to help patients and carers to adjust to the physical and psychological demands of their illness, offering social and emotional support. In 2011 a further extension was built to offer patients more space and better facilities. Day Hospice patients have access to medical and nursing professionals experience in palliative care.
The Day Hospice can be a joyful place. Patients enjoy meeting each other in a place where they can be open and frank about their illness and experiences of treatment. The staff are caring, wanting to provide the best possible experience for the guests in what are very difficult circumstances dealing with life threatening illness. It is a very personalised service.
Hospice
A ‘Hospice’, was originally a place people came to rest on a journey. For some it is a final resting place and for others an exposure to death which will change their lives forever. For all it is a place of contemplation, a place of transforming identities and reassessing values. It is a place where the deepest desires of one’s heart are, for some, finally revealed, and a place where the love of those close to you becomes all important. It is a bridge between the material and the spiritual worlds – A hospice is therefore a very special place for all those who come to it.
Overgate Hospice is an equal opportunities employer, to download our equal opportunities policy Please Click Here.
Overgate Hospice are registered with the Care Quality Commission:
Registered Manager: Elaine Baines
Certificate Number: 1-281796497
About the Care Quality Commission
CQC are the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
They regulate care provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies and voluntary organisations. We aim to make sure better care is provided for everyone - in hospitals, care homes and people's own homes. We also seek to protect the interests of people whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.
For further information please visit www.cqc.org.uk
