ellenor captures the attention of South Korea

ellenor gained international attention recently, having welcomed a film crew to ellenor Gravesend from KBS – the national public broadcaster in South Korea (the equivalent to the BBC). The team flew in from Seoul and are preparing a documentary on hospice care in the UK, as they currently don’t have a comparable system in South Korea or one single hospice.

The South Korean production team had read a report which stated that end-of-life care in the UK is the best in the world. So, they decided to visit the UK and find out what we are doing right.

“There have been many campaigns and debates to discuss the important of dying and introducing better policies and care systems in South Korea,” explained Seon-Ju Choi, Production Coordinator at KBS.“We wanted to make a special programme to discuss this important issue and discover what we can learn from Britain.”

The team not only chose to focus on ellenor because the charity is based near London, but they were attracted to the fact that ellenor cares for all ages – from tiny babies to elderly people.

As an organisation, ellenor welcomed the international interest, as sharing its knowledge with others very much fits with the charity’s ethos and strategy. ellenor has a very strong programme of education, which it readily shares with other organisations and educational establishments.

ellenor strives to act as a palliative care lead – both in the UK and abroad – raising awareness of end-of-life issues, promoting good practice and developing its role in educating others to enable more people to get the best care at the end-of-life. Its strategy includes raising awareness of end-of-life care issues in the community and developing its role in education and training of other providers.

Having the team in from South Korea builds on the work ellenor has already done sharing its expertise internationally. As an organisation, the charity established the first hospice in Romania, while members of the ellenor team have travelled to France and South America to share their knowledge and expertise, while care teams have visited ellenor in the past from Nigeria.

The KBS film crew spoke to Ward Manager, Angela Cooke at ellenor Gravesend and to the charity’s Director of Patient Care, Jacquie Hackett, while they also chatted to some patients in Day Therapy and on the inpatient ward, as well as Liz Green and her little girl Mia, one of ellenor’s patients looked after by the children’s team.

The crew – which included news reporter So Jeong Lee - also visited ellenor Gravsend’s kitchen and spent some time enjoying the spring sunshine in the garden.

The team said how surprised they were at how happy everyone seemed at ellenor, as they had imagined a very sad and dreary place. They were also impressed by how passionate everyone seemed about ellenor – from patients to staff and volunteers.

The documentary programme – which is similar to BBC One’s Panorama – is set to be aired at the end of April in South Korea.

One important aspect of the filming was to explain to our South Korean visitors that ellenor is a charity and needs to raise £6.7 million each year. To donate to ellenor, visit: www.ellenor.org