A valuable addition to the medical care received by those who visit Helen & Douglas House includes a range of different therapies, including time spent in the music and art rooms and spa, as well as trips out, for example, to attend a music festival or to see the giraffes at Twycross Zoo!


The care provided by Helen & Douglas House includes:


Symptom management: for increasingly complex cases


End of life care: especially for babies, children and young adults with rare, neurological, and neuromuscular conditions and increasingly for patients with non-curative cancer


Acute care: including medical emergency, stepped discharge after a period spent in hospital before returning home, complex acute symptom management and end of life care


Specialist medically supported short breaks: offering care to patients who could not be accommodated by other respite centres Medical case management: helping to look after patients with very complex conditions


Neonatal palliative care: caring for babies who have been transferred straight from postnatal intensive care units


‘It is such a relief as soon as I walk through the door. It’s knowing that


we are all going to be looked after.’ Sandra, Helen House mum


A Helen House Family Sandra’s Story


Ben is nine years old and was born with the condition Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). The family have recently been staying in one of the family flats in Helen House, so that they can be with Ben as he recovers from an operation.


‘The staff are fantastic. They monitor Ben’s drugs; I don’t have to think or worry about the medical side of things here. It is a home from home.


In hospital we still have to provide overnight care and help Ben take his drugs. We could not stay very comfortably there like here. Ben cannot move himself and gets anxious if he is left on his own, so we still had to do it in hospital.


We are going to try and book some time again soon for respite care for Ben, so that we can get a break for a few days. He needs so much equipment, it is very difficult to get away normally. As soon as we arrived this time Ben said, when can we come back?


… The Care Team goes through his specific needs in detail. Nothing phases them. They have seen it all before. They understand and know his type of condition from experience.’


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