Workshops for Hospice caregivers in South Africa
Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA), with funding from the Open Society Institute, has initiated a project to share legal information with hospice staff relevant to the challenges faced by patients in poor communities through short thematic workshops run by law students. Nicola GunnClark reports:
Helping others to help themselves
Patients with serious illnesses, and their families, face many problems, some of which require legal help. These workshops are creating awareness of legal assistance that is available to patients and how to find it. Once caregivers have attended the legal workshops, which include roleplay exercises, they are encouraged to apply their learning in the field.
Caregivers are in a unique position to assess information needs in the community, providing feedback on what further legal workshops and assistance might be necessary. For example, caregivers in Cape Town came to realize there was a definite lack of information on grants in local communities. They said most people seemed to know about the Child Support Grant and Old Age Grant, but didn't realise that there is more than one grant available -- particularly for children. As communities are empowered with knowledge about different grants they begin to assert themselves to actively pursue their rights.
Knowledge is power
Bonni was enrolled on the St Luke's 59-day caregivers course. Since she had a debt problem, she also attended a workshop on Debt Management and the new Credit Act. During the workshop, phone numbers for further assistance were given. Bonni decided to ask for help and was in turn referred to a debt counsellor in Cape Town. After meeting Bonni and going through her paperwork, the debt counsellor agreed to negotiate on her behalf to try and reduce her debt.
Hazel recently completed the St Luke's Hospice 59 day caregivers' course. During this time Hazel's father passed away, leaving her mother his pension. Hazel then discovered that about a third of the pension had been paid out to one of her brothers. Fortunately, the caregivers' course had included a workshop on wills and inheritance. Hazel says, "I learnt that the pension fund administrator was not entitled to give my brother any money without my mother's consent. I also learnt more about the paperwork required and the process that should be followed when a person has died."
Nontembeko is another caregiver in Cape Town, whose grandmother is caring for a child whose unemployed parents live in the Eastern Cape. Since the parents had not given her permission to foster the child, the grandmother was unable to claim financial assistance from the State. After attending a legal workshop on grants, Nontembeko encouraged her grandmother to contact the toll-free Social Security Agency helpline.
Where to from here?
So far the project is being piloted at three hospices (St Luke's, Soweto and Tapologo) and once the results have been established it is hoped to integrate legal services within all associated hospices.
Future plans include strengthening the law workshops to allow hospice staff to practice the identification and referral of legal problems, establishing links with local paralegals and legal referral networks and establishing a rural outreach of this project
What happened to Hazel?
As result of the Wills and Inheritance workshop, Hazel rang the pension fund administrators and became more directly involved on behalf of her mother and her other siblings. As a result of the workshop, she said she felt more confident to act assertively to resolve the family's problem.
If you want to find out more about this pilot project or how you could reach paralegals, legal aid clinics or a hospice in your area, please ring 021 531 0277 or look at our website at www.hospicepalliativecaresa.co.za
Hospice Palliative Care Association. Nicola can be contacted by e-mail on: nicola@hpca.co.za
