St. Christopher's Hospice is a

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

south London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

, England, established in 1967 by

Cicely Saunders Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders (22 June 1918 – 14 July 2005) was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasising the i ...

, whose work is considered the basis of modern hospice philosophy.

Legacy

Among the first staff at St. Christopher's was Florence Wald, who took Saunders' philosophies back to the United States to become the founder of the hospice movement in the United States.Rierden, And
"A Calling for Care Of the Terminally Ill"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 19 April 1998; Accessed 5 February 2009 In 1971 Robert Twycross was appointed as a Clinical Research Fellow by Saunders. During his tenure there, his studies on the effectiveness of

morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...

diamorphine Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

and

methadone Methadone, sold under the brand names Dolophine and Methadose among others, is a synthetic opioid used medically to treat chronic pain and opioid use disorder. Prescribed for daily use, the medicine relieves cravings and opioid withdrawal sym ...

helped standardize and simplify the management of cancer pain.25 Years in Palliative Medicine at Sir Michael Sobell House: A Festschrift for Robert Twycross, Radcliffe Medical Press, 2003; Szeloch H.,Hospice as a place of pastoral and palliative care over a badly ill person. Wyd. UKSW Warszawa 2012, ISSN 1895-3204. The hospice houses an exhibition of sculptures by the Polish artist Witold Gracjan Kawalec.

References

External links

Official site
Hospices in England Charities based in London Health in London 1967 establishments in England {{UK-hospital-stub