CHOLLACOTT House Nursing Home in Tavistock has been awarded a ‘Six Steps End of Life Care’ accreditation from St Luke’s Hospice.

Deputy manager Barbara Kadar and clinical lead Kim Holdaway had to undertake a huge amount of work and provide evidence over a year long period to demonstrate their own and the care home’s competence before being awarded the accolade.

The home provides care for the elderly and specialises in complex needs including Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and acquired brain injuries.

Chollacott’s manager Elaine Holliman said: ‘As a manager it makes me very proud to have staff who have achieved the St Luke’s accred itation and going forward we will enrol more staff onto this training to ensure we remain focused, up to date and continue to offer a high quality in this area of our work.

‘We strive to provide high standards every day in our practices, and this includes nursing care, day care, respite and assessments.’

St Luke’s Hospice, Plymouth, has adapted the original six step programme to include a path for the individual to ensure that care workers gained the knowledge and skills to become the end of life experts within the care setting. In addition, due to requests from the pilot programme, extra workshops on end of life care for those with dementia and learning disabilities have been established and this is known as the ‘Six Step + Programme’.