St Ann’s Hospice is sharing its expertise with talented health care staff from Lithuania.
Medical student Povilas Danielius and health psychologist Gryte Balsyte, from Kaunas, spent a week at the Little Hulton hospice learning more about palliative care.
Their placements were part of an ongoing partnership between St Ann’s and the Tiltas Trust, a UK charity set up eight years ago to share experience and best practice between the two countries.
Povilas is following in the path of his mother Irena, who runs a palliative care centre back home and who visited St Ann’s on a fact-finding trip in 2012.
He said: “We’ve been learning about St Ann’s methods and why it’s such a highly successful hospice. Our aim is to share that knowledge with patients in Lithuania so they can receive the same high quality of end-of-life care.”
Gryte, who is also volunteer co-ordinator at the Vita Digna volunteer organisation, said: “Palliative care is far more advanced and co-ordinated at St Ann’s than in Lithuania, especially in skills such as bereavement and emotional care, so there’s a lot of benefit to coming here. ”
Clinical Operations Manager Sian Burgess and Support Services Manager Julie Foley from St Ann’s, went to the Baltic State two years ago to share ideas on a trip funded by the Tiltas Trust.
Image: Povilas Danielius and Gryte Balsyte
