Challenge, improve and change: Jeanette’s Wolfson Funding

When it came to the hospice’s dementia care, Jeanette and her team had already been operating at a relatively advanced level – but she knew that to really elevate their understanding and practice in dementia care, education would be the key to its development and improvement. A master’s in Dementia Studies, she adds, would also be important for furthering her career: adding specialist expertise to her CV.

Jeanette had already applied for her studies when she discovered that she might be eligible for a professional development grant, managed by Hospice UK. The grant itself was funded by the Wolfson Foundation, specifically targeted to hospice professionals who want to undertake further education and training.

The grant was relatively simple to apply for – although there was one challenge: they’d only spotted it the day before the application closing deadline. “That was a late evening, shall we say!” adds Jeanette, “But thankfully, once I'd applied for it was straightforward. The communication was great. I got an acknowledgement to say that it'd been received and then shortly afterwards I found out it'd been awarded, and the funds came through.”
 

A Wolfson Foundation professional development grant can be used on its own to fund, or part-fund, education and training – or used in tandem with funding from other organisations. Jeanette benefited from the latter, where Wolfson funding contributed towards the total cost of her master’s supplemented by amounts from other funding sources.

“The overall cost of my master’s was around £10,000 – and the Wolfson funding covered £1,500. But it just took the pressure off me financially, because I was going to have to pay for half of that myself. It meant that I could spend some quality time on holiday with my family instead. It really made life a bit easier.”
 

Jeanette says that she chose the master’s course because the module structure aligned so well with what she was already doing, as a hospice professional – such as looking at dementia with a ‘whole system’ approach. The learnings from her course reinforced her beliefs that dementia is not just an illness – but something that has a wider impact on families, carers and society too.

“I think it's probably given me the confidence to challenge healthcare professionals because I’ve been able to back up what I’m saying with the evidence.

“They don't always see the person – they only see the dementia. I’ve now got the confidence in the belief that it's very much about seeing the person – and I have the right evidence to back that up.”

The second module in the master’s course focused on supporting people with dementia, through therapies of interventions. That, adds Jeanette, inspired ideas for service development. She explains: 

“On the back of that module, I set up a Tai Chi group for people with dementia and their carers, which I might not have thought about before doing this. I’ve had some great feedback that people enjoy the Tai Chi group – they say, ‘oh that was very lovely’ at the end.”
 

Jeanette says that her final first year module looked at the wider support for carers. Here, the teachings were around setting up a carer training group – something that she’d already done in practice. This meant that Jeanette had a chance to evaluate what she’d already set up, how it was working and how she might improve it. 
 

Another positive outcome to the grant-funded training has been the discovery of new tools and research: “there was an assessment tool around learning disabilities that we hadn't been aware of prior to me going on the course,” says Jeanette, “and the team are now using it. 

“Now, because we've got a couple of people with Down Syndrome and dementia on the caseload, that's come in really useful. It's certainly changed some of the training that I deliver to all the staff members as well. And I’ve also been able to share any research papers I’ve come across on my studies.”

Jeanette adds that it is most often the carers of people with dementia from whom they get a sense of the impact that their practice is having:

“Because of the stage of dementia of people we're dealing with, they haven't really got the capacity or the thought process to understand. But it’s the carers we hear from. They’ve said things like they’ve noticed we’ve done a press release around Dementia Awareness Week…and bits and pieces on the radio. They’re curious why we’ve promoted it as a palliative condition – so it’s really stimulated conversation and furthered wider understanding of the condition.”
 

Jeanette reflects that there might still be a common misconception around hospice care – and that’s why funding – like her Wolfson Foundation professional development grant – is so important: 

“People don't really realise what hospice care is about…they often just see a hospice as somewhere you go to die. But there's just so much more to hospices than that, if you think of all the living well things that hospices do, like breathing programmes or the dementia well-being group that we run. So grants like these help us show people that there's more to hospice care than they think.”

And Jeanette’s advice to any fellow hospice professionals thinking of doing more training? Talk to your heads of services, or Grants team – they’re usually clued up on sources of funding, including professional development grants like these:

“I know of a colleague who’s looking to do a palliative qualification and I asked whether she’d looked at the Hospice UK website to check if there’s funding available. It’s made a huge difference to me, and I think it will do the same for others.

“And what have you not to lose if they say no? You haven't lost anything by filling the form in, have you!”

Thank you to Jeanette Hogg and Hospice Isle of Man for sharing her story.