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Lithuanian health care workers visit St Ann’s Hospice


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

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SalfordOnline.com's Local History Editor and Senior Reporter.