Bear Cottage

About

A hospice that provides palliative and end of life care to children with life limiting illnesses.

Story

Bear Cottage is the only children’s hospice in NSW, one of only two in Australia, and the only one in the world affiliated with a children’s hospital. We provide support, respite and end of life care for children with terminal illness and their families. Bear Cottage is located on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, in Manly. Our vision is to be as far removed from a hospital environment as possible.

Staff don’t wear uniforms, no medical procedures are carried out in the bedrooms, and children’s rooms are designed to like a normal bedroom. This ‘home away from home’ is complete with a pet dog, Frankie, who is always around to provide some extra comfort. That said, Bear Cottage is set up to provide excellence in paediatric medical care 24-hours a day, and our affiliation to Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network means we have access to some of the best medical resources in the world.

Bear Cottage has ten children's bedrooms and three family units. Children may stay at Bear Cottage unaccompanied or with family or carers. There is communal tea room, lounge room, outdoor areas to talk, read or look at the lovely sea views.
There is a quiet room, spa room, multi sensory room, teen room with TVs and video game consoles, messy play area and an outdoor wheelchair swing and seesaw.

There is also the beach and the lovely surrounds of Manly for the children and families to enjoy. The city of Sydney is just a short ferry ride away also.

Bear Cottage has a Child Life Therapist, Music Therapist and an Art Therapist as well as a full time chef and housekeeping staff. Families can do as much or as little as they choose whilst staying at Bear Cottage.

There is no charge to families for their stay at Bear Cottage and we rely heavily on the community for donations. For more information, please visit our website at [email protected]

Mission

BEAR COTTAGE: THE REASON WE ARE NEEDED

Bear Cottage provides palliative and end of life care to children with life limiting illnesses, as well as providing support and respite to the families and carers of these children.

Bear Cottage provides 24 hour medical care with a dedicated nursing team.
Bear Cottage also has social workers to assist the families.

Families of newly diagnosed seriously ill children are, understandably, very overwhelmed, firstly with the shock and sadness that their child will not get better from their condition and in fact may die at a young age.
There will also be a huge change to their lives and their families life because of this occurance.
They have to learn to care for their ill child which can be very intricate, demanding and revolve through a 24 hour period.
These families are under enormous strain, emotionally, physically, mentally and often financially, especially as so many give up their employment to become full time carers of their child.
These amazing families need huge amounts of HELP.

Bear Cottage is there to help the children and their families, to care for and to assist them as much as possible.
The medical team is there to care, guide, support and show parents how to carry out the cares that their child needs where necessary.
The social workers are here to assist them through all times, but especially the very difficult time of end of life care and the death of their child.


RESPITE

Bear Cottage also supports the families and carers of these children by offering respite from the continual care.
Having a very ill child often means 24 hour care which they do very willingly and with great dedication, but it is exhausting.
The families and carers can stay at Bear Cottage whilst having all or some (their choice) of their childs cares taken care of.

UNACCOMPANIED RESPITE

Families may leave their child at Bear Cottage to be cared for by us without them staying themselves.
This alows the parents and carers to have some time off from the ongoing continual routine of caring for their Child.
They may attend engagements, or VERY importantly get some rest and respite for themselves, go on a holiday or spend quality time with other family members.

BEAR COTTAGE CAMPS

Bear Cottage also holds Mums, Dads and Sibling camps, as well as the camps for the children.

Listening to feedback from our families we learnt that having a child (or children) with life limiting illnesses is often very daunting, isolating and sad with many moments of frustrationa and anger.
Meeting people experiencing the same circumstances was invaluable to them to find friendship, comfort ,support with others who truly understand what you are going through.
The Bear Cottage camps run for several times throughout the year.


END OF LIFE CARE

One of the very important features of Bear Cottage is the end of life room.

When a child dies in hospital they have to be taken to the hospital morgue relatively quickly.
As soon as a death certificate is drawn up the child's body has to leave the hospital reasonably quickly too.
This is a horribly fast and daunting process for parents and family members to have to deal with at such a terribly sad time.
When a child dies at Bear Cottage they are moved into a temperature controlled room which is set up just like a child's bedroom.
A family suite is attached with a seperate entrance and courtyard for privacy.

The child and their family can stay for up to three days in this special room.
This gives the family the crucially important time needed to spend time with their child and have a longer time to say their final goodbyes.
They also have the full support and care of the nurses, social workers and staff at this emotionally and painfully sad time.
It is also a very important time for any siblings.This time helps them to come to terms with the loss of their brother or sister and be able to say their goodbyes also.
The three day time period also allows for relatives and friends to have time to travel if they are a distance away.

A MESSAGE FROM BEAR COTTAGE

Despite the fact that Bear Cottage is a hospice that cares for very ill children, it is a positive and happy place for the children and their families and carers to be in.
There exsists a nuturing environment where these wonderful children and families are embraced, assisted, listened to, supported and cared for.
Bear Cottage has a warm calm atmosphere, it is a place full of laughter, fun times and special memories.
The children no longer with us remain a very loved and always remembered member of the Bear Cottage family.

You will never hear the word 'patient' at Bear Cottage, only child or children.

At Bear Cottage we feel that a child's life, however short or challenging should be as happy, enjoyable and full as possible, in fact, due to it's brevity, even more so.

Every moment is precious, every moment counts.



VOLUNTEERING AT BEAR COTTAGE

Bear Cottage staff are assisted in various tasks by an amazing group of volunteers or 'vollies' as they are affectionately known.
The volunteers help with various tasks in administration, gardening, housekeeping and in the kitchen (no help is needed for food preparation).
The volunteers also help in giving time and attention to the children through story reading, art and crafts and play. They might accompany a child on an excursion or just keep them company when they are playing a video game.
If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at Bear cottage, please visit the Bear Cottage website

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

If you or your company would like to promote and assist Bear Cottage and require some flyers, printed information and specific details please contact Bronwen Simmons at

[email protected]

If you would like to know more about Bear Cottage, please visit the website.
Thankyou.