Ambulance Wish Western Australia recently launched its new service to fulfil final wishes for West Australians who are terminally ill or receiving palliative care. The first of its kind in Western Australia, the service creates significant positive impact for terminally ill West Australians and their families.
The charity’s mission is to give people living with terminal illness, regardless of age, the resources, specialist transport and medical care they need to fulfil their final wishes, with no charge for the recipient – improving the quality of the dying experience for the individuals and their families. Previously, terminally ill and palliative West Australians, who are often immobile, were dying without being given the opportunity to fulfil their last wishes because there was no means to transport them out of their hospices or homes.
Ambulance Wish Western Australia provides a no-cost service to support people in end of life care to visit a place of personal significance. It is intended to not only bring joy to the individual, but to also ensure beautiful memories for their family and friends.
For people with terminal illness or in palliative care, a simple chance to reconnect with their lives in their final days can mean the world. Ambulance Wish Western Australia will give them an opportunity to visit a place of personal significance – whether that’s to admire their own garden, to feel the breeze of the ocean, or to simply be surrounded by their loved ones and pets. Journeys are focused on Wish Recipients and families making new memories as well as enjoying their trip down memory lane.
Susie Wilson, chair of the charity’s management committee, said it is usually the little things that mean the most to a person nearing the end of their life:
“That is where Ambulance Wish can make such a difference, customising and honouring wishes to celebrate a person’s life and bring comfort to those closest to them – acknowledging that great care includes physical, mental and spiritual and extends beyond the individual.
“Ambulance Wish Western Australia will try to bring peace to the final period of critically ill, immobile West Australians and to ease the grieving process by eliciting and implementing a wish identified by individuals, families or clinicians. The Ambulance Wish programme seeks to provide care, even after accepting that death is imminent, by fulfilling wishes that celebrate a person’s life and passions. This can ease grief for families by providing a means for them to support their loved ones, and can allow clinicians to provide something for their patients even when they are unable to do so medically. Fulfilling wishes for those who have little time left will leave a lasting and memorable impact on all those involved.”