It’s just as much about their psychological welfare - and that’s where Ballarat Hospice Care’s specialist counsellors calmly enter the picture.

In fact, counsellor Liz Dawson sums up her role perfectly.

“I believe we hear the things they don’t say,” Liz said.

“What we do is allow them to tell us what they want. It really is a privilege to get to help people who are at their most vulnerable and enable or empower them to be in control at the end of their life.”

Ballarat Hospice Care has three specialist counsellors, who triage new admissions daily, assessing them and their family’s need for psychosocial, spiritual, emotional and practical support. Ongoing bereavement support is also available if needed.

They also help clients with accessing Centrelink allowances, superannuation, advanced care planning and even will writing.

Each of the three counsellors, who also include Paula Robinson and Kerri-Ann Batchelor, have about 50 clients at any one time while also offering ongoing family bereavement counselling and bereavement support groups.

“A lot of psychosocial education is normalising death, grief and loss,” Kerri-Ann said.

“Clients are also anticipating grief, a loss of independence, a loss of their future, a loss of their goals and future dreams.”

Paula and Kerri-Ann have also recently created workplace grief and bereavement education workshops to help educate organisations and employees to strengthen their resilience in the face of loss, or who are working with others who have experienced grief and loss.

Another program offered is Words of Life, which is a facilitated therapeutic process encouraging clients to write down their life story which is then bound into a book for family members.

Marion McCabe doesn’t ever resent being one of the 730 Australians diagnosed with motor neurone disease annually.

“I sometimes think this (MND) has been a blessing in disguise. I’ve met the most wonderful people,” Marion said.

The ones she describes as her “little rays of sunshine” are her Ballarat Hospice Care team, comprising of palliative care specialist nurses and her counsellor Liz Dawson. “Liz is all about my state of mind, mine and (husband) Andrew’s. She’s very attuned and knows me very well. She is very truthful and doesn’t sugar coat things.”

Ballarat Hospice Care first came into Marion’s world in late 2014, a couple of years after she was first diagnosed after a two-year battle for answers.

Palliative care specialist nurses visit fortnightly and have proven vital in linking Marion with a Ballarat GP with a high degree of MND knowledge.

On the alternate week, Liz visits and has been committing Marion’s life story to paper as part of the Words of Life program.

Ballarat Hospice Care has also loaned Marion an over bed table and a princess chair for pressure relief.

Every three months, her Ballarat Hospice Care workers and her other health professionals hold a meeting to discuss Marion’s current physical and emotional needs and she has joined the Ballarat MND Support Group.

Together with Liz, Marion has also done her “five wishes” which is essentially an end of life planning document but which she said had given her a lot of information about the options ahead of her.

Andrew has also attended carer information sessions which he said were very worthwhile.

When Tessa Mao was diagnosed with stomach cancer in September 2015, there were a couple of questions she was just too afraid to ask.

As a Chinese-Muslim, the Federation University professional staffer had little idea of the Australian health system – or, most importantly, how she could be buried according to her religious beliefs.

“There were sensitive things I wanted to know about but I didn’t know how and where to ask,” Tessa said.

But luckily Tessa had been put in touch with Ballarat Hospice Care, including Liz.

“Liz brought up funerals in an open and honest way,” Tessa said. 

“I wanted to know if there were any Muslim funerals in Ballarat, but I didn’t have the courage to ask.

“After our first meeting, Liz found out about the mosque in Ballarat and went there to meet with the imam. She went much further for me than I thought she would.”

After initial hospital treatment and intensive chemotherapy, Tessa went to China for work but, on her return, found her cancer had worsened, which was when her oncologist Dr Craig Carden recommended Ballarat Hospice Care.

“I said ‘what is that’? When I found out, I didn’t want to be placed in that basket. 

“But it’s been great. I have all this extra support I couldn’t access anywhere else.”

As migrants, Tessa, her husband and daughter don’t have any family support, but she said Ballarat Hospice Care stepped in to fill the void.

“They are very warm and caring. They are not just dealing with people’s bodies, but their minds too.

“They are face to face and at the same level, there is no distance. They put themselves in our shoes. This is something I’ve never experienced.”

When Sue Harris died from ovarian cancer on January 25 this year, her husband Mick was left with “no questions unanswered”.

After being diagnosed in April 2015, it became clear in mid-2016 that Sue and Mick needed extra support after all her chemotherapy options were exhausted.

Dr Carden again recommended Ballarat Hospice Care where they were linked in with specialist palliative care nurses and counsellors, talking to Kerri-Ann both as a couple and individually.

“By the time Sue died we were the closest we’d been in many years. There were no questions left unanswered. Sue got a lot of peace out of it,” Mick said.

Mick said individual counselling also helped him prepare as well as he could for Sue’s eventual death. 

“We talked about life going forward and that it was normal to feel guilty thinking about life without her.

“Counselling definitely allowed us to get the best result for us.”

After Sue died, Mick has continued counselling sessions with Kerri-Ann, which has made him see “it’s good to plan but I have to be flexible as well”.

“It’s given me the confidence and reassurance that I am on the right track.

“While I can miss Sue terribly, I don’t have to dwell on it.”