HOMELESS charities from across the county met at Ellendune Community Centre on Monday to learn how to provide quality end-of-life care for their clients.

Run by Prospect Hospice, the training day saw more than 20 people come together to swap stories and learn new skills as part of Prospect’s bid to extend palliative care to everyone who needs it, regardless of material circumstances.

Rachel Chronnell, education manager at Prospect, said: “Today is all about showing people how to have those difficult conversations with clients and giving them the confidence and skills to administer end-of-life care.

“It’s part of our desire to work more closely with charities and groups that support homeless people. We are hoping it will have a big impact and make a real difference to the lives of those who need help.”

Today was the first of three sessions, with the remaining two set to be held in November and December.

In order to measure the impact of the training, attendees were asked to fill in a questionnaire so organisers know how effective the lessons have been and if there is anything they can do differently next time.

The training day was free to attend and run in partnership with Dorothy House Hospice.

The volunteers were taught how to handle particularly difficult or distressing situations, such as coming into contact with homeless people of a particularly young age, or, as Rachel put it, dealing with someone “found dying in a carpark”.

Paul Kyson, who has worked with Swindon-based homeless charity Threshold for the past four years, said: “Today has given me a better understanding of all the issues surrounding end of life care for the homeless.

“A lot of focus has been placed on identifying different barriers around our client group and knowing how to apply end-of-life care effectively in any given situation.

“It has made me a lot more confident when dealing with these issues, which can often be very tricky, and I think the team at Prospect has done a wonderful job.”

Warren Finney, head of Prospect’s community engagement department, said: “It is really important that we inspire excellence in end-of-life care for everyone in Swindon. We are working very closely with frontline staff in various homeless organisations to help them with people they meet on a daily basis.

“The feedback so far has been brilliant and we will work on improving things further for the remaining training sessions.”

Andrew Thompson, senior communications manager at the hospice added: “This is a big deal for us as it means that we will be extending our reach to a community that we have traditionally had limited success in being able to support.”