Our vision at Totara Hospice is to honour living and dignify dying. We do this by providing free multi-disciplinary, specialist holistic palliative care services to all eligible patients resident within our coverage areas of South and South East Auckland. We provide services for those with a life-limiting illness such as cancers, heart, lung or kidney failure or neurological diseases such as motor neuron disease with a focus on ensuring that their final journey is lived with comfort, care, and dignity where possible.
We are extremely proud to work alongside colleagues in our community including General Practice and Hospital teams to achieve the best outcomes possible for our patients. We are a certified provider of specialist of palliative care services and have a large, professional multidisciplinary team including palliative care specialist doctors, nurses, cultural support and social workers amongst many others.
Each referral is triaged and screened and directed through the right pathway of services based on the individual needs of each patient.
We embrace diversity of age, ethnicity, means, lifestyle or religion focusing on the individual needs of each patient and their family/whānau so that they are able to focus on living well for the time they have left together.
The Inpatient Unit is based at Totara House, 140 Charles Prevost Drive, The Gardens, Manurewa. All our rooms are private (with ensuites) allowing us to provide specialist care and support within a homelike environment 24 hours a day seven days a week. Our IPU has a focus on symptom management and end of life care.
For those who do not need or may not wish an IPU admission, our community team works with the patient’s GP and other health care practitioners to provide skilled hospice care and support for patients and their families in their home.
If you are under the care of our Community Team and any of the public information from the Ministry of Health on Covid-19 applies to you or a family member living with you then please notify us before we visit you.
Our clinic also based at Totara House provides specialist palliative care needs assessment and recommendations on care planning and interventions that can be shared with specialists or general practice teams.
The Allied Health and Social Support Team provide counseling, social work, cultural support, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, arts therapy and spiritual support to assist and support patients and their families. Each team member is available to help identify and explore the physical, emotional, cultural and spiritual challenges that invariably accompany a life-limiting illness.
The Centre incorporates palliative rehabilitation, family support, socialisation, patient clinical care and review of individual needs. Also cultural support, well being, education, and bereavement services.
It can also provide carers with a regular time out. Our Te Puna Ora o Tōtara is situated at Totara House and is staffed by a registered nurse, health care assistant and a team of volunteers.
Assisted dying is legal in New Zealand from 7 November 2021.
Tōtara Hospice’s central role in the community is to provide holistic, specialised palliative care and support to patients, and to respect and support patient-centered choice in the partnership of care.
Tōtara Hospice does not conscientiously object to assisted dying.
We respect that approximately two-thirds of the population voted in favour of assisted dying as a legal option for the terminally ill who meet the eligibility criteria within the Act. and who wish to access it.
From November 7th, we will Host assisted dying services for those patients in our care who wish to access this legal choice.
Nothing is going to change at Tōtara Hospice about how we give care and support.
What changes is the range of choices a patient with a terminal illness has as their illness progresses.
If a patient wishes to access assisted dying, we will host this service, supporting them to access this in a seamless way, and continue to care for them and their whānau/families up until death and beyond.
For further information please click here.
Our advice line operates 7 days a week. It is managed by the registered nurses within our IPU and provides support and information 24 hours a day. This can be reached on 09 640 0025.
If we can help you or a family member please meet with your General Practitioner or medical specialist who will make a referral for us for you. For information on healthcare providers in your area, please refer to the Healthpoint website.
Please find information on Referrals here.
Alternatively, you can call Totara Hospice on our 24 hour/7 days a week line (09) 640 0025
Referrals: If you think that Hospice can help you or a loved one our patients are usually referred to Tōtara Hospice through a healthcare professional, such as a General Practioner (GP), specialist medical practitioners or community agency (Downloadable Referral Form for Healthcare Professionals)
Our Vision: Honour living, dignify dying
Our Mission: Provide leading edge hospice palliative care services to individuals and their families, care networks and communities
Our Operating Purpose: Operate a sustainable, high quality, high touch, outcomes based Hospice for the diverse communities of South and South East Auckland
If you are a Health Professional looking for educational sessions available at Tōtara Hospice on palliative care, please click here.
