A team of carers at Camelot Care’s Butterfly Lodge in Plymouth have been recognised for delivering excellent end-of-life care by St Luke’s Hospice.

The accreditation marks the fourth consecutive time staff at the home have been recognised for the excellent way they implement the charity’s focused Six Steps + programme. 

The four Butterfly Lodge end-of-life champions are: service manager Clare Sinclair; nurse and clinical lead Ivorine Ramkishun; senior care assistant Michelle Fletcher; and care assistant Joanne Mason. 

Sinclair said: “Six Steps + is a really excellent programme because it incorporates all aspects of end-of-life care and equips us care professionals to initiate appropriate individualised care in the months that precede end-of-life, as well as making sure our residents’ wishes are respected right up to the end. 

“Providing excellent end-of-life care is so important because it’s the last thing you can do for someone, and we want their passing to be dignified, pain-free and as ‘right’ as it can be for loved ones too.”

The Butterfly Lodge team has already formulated a new ‘future wishes’ programme as part of their revised care planning system based on knowledge gained from the Six Steps + training to ensure that residents’ wishes for their end-of-life are recorded and followed. 

St Luke’s Hospice is an independent charity which provides specialist care and support to people in the region who have progressive life-limiting illnesses.

Their Six Steps + programme is a pioneering hospice-accredited course that promotes the best end-of-life care outside the hospice environment.