Help Navigating the System When Life Changes

In this episode we are joined by Claire Walsh and Nora Durcan from the Department of Social Protection in Sligo, alongside Orla Barry from Citizens Information. Together they walk through the financial and practical supports available when illness, caring or bereavement reshapes a family's life; illness benefit, invalidity pension, disability allowance, carer's allowance, carer's benefit, the carer's support grant, domiciliary care allowance, supplementary welfare and the new bereaved partner's pension. They explain the fast-track process for terminal illness, how to appoint an agent, how to appeal a decision, and how the access officer service supports vulnerable customers. Their message is simple: these supports are a right, not a charity, and there are real people ready to help you take the first step.

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"Seeking support is not a charity. It's a right within the social importance of social assistance."

"Always apply. People just assume they're not entitled to things… we won't know until you apply."

"We're all human. We all have brothers, sisters, mummies. We've all been through it or will go through it or know somebody who has."

Guests: Claire Walsh and Nora Durcan (Department of Social Protection, Sligo); Orla Barry (Citizens Information)

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: Citizens Information Centre Sligo

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠

Referenced Links

MyWelfare.ie · Citizens Information.ie · Gov.ie/DSP · MABS.ie

Practical Financial Support When Life Changes

Tomas Kelly is a dedicated mortgage arrears advisor with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) in Sligo, supporting people and families through some of the most stressful financial moments of their lives. In this conversation he walks through the practical supports available when illness or caregiving changes a household's income ; from carer's allowance and the carer's support grant to mortgage payment breaks, charitable funds, wills, enduring power of attorney and the Think Ahead form. Tomas is clear that MABS is free, confidential and non-judgmental, and that the service is there long before anyone is in serious debt. He gently names the shame and embarrassment that keep people from asking, and reminds listeners that lenders, employers and the social welfare system are far more human than fear allows us to believe.

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"Nobody plans for ill health, nobody plans for loss of employment, nobody plans for family breakdowns. You don't plan for the unexpected."

"We need to forget about the shame, we need to forget about the embarrassment… the best thing is if people can face things head on."

"Always apply. People just assume they're not entitled to things. We won't know until you apply."

Guest: Tomas Kelly, MABS Sligo

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: North West Hospice Charity — Light Up a Life Christmas event

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠

Referenced Links

MABS.ie · Citizens Information.ie · MyWelfare.ie · Think Ahead (Irish Hospice Foundation)

Why She Has Never Stopped Talking About It

When Mary Forte's husband Anthony was dying, a friend suggested a hospice bed, and Mary's first reaction was that hospice is where people go to die. Two days later she walked through the door of North West Hospice and was met with a cup of tea, a slice of toast, and ten months she now describes as the most positive experience of the hardest time in her family's life. Mary talks with Tara about Anthony's care, about the nurses who quietly minded the whole family while she thought they were only minding him, and about the hardest thing the hospice ever asked of them, which was to stop pretending and tell the children the truth. She went back years later as a healthcare assistant and now works as the charity's commercial manager, running the shop, the volunteers and the garden she once landscaped by hand. Warm, funny and entirely without varnish, this is the story of why she has never stopped talking about the place.

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"My friend is saying, get a bed in the hospice. And I'm like, are you off your head? That's where people go to die."

"The hospice gave the children back their father and they gave me back my husband."

"I always describe the hospice as the most positive experience in the most heartbreaking time of my life, and my children's life, and my husband's life."

Guest: Mary Forte, Commercial Manager, North West Hospice Charity

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: North West Hospice Charity Shop

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠

Referenced Links

NorthWestHospice.ie · Hospice shop, Lower Quay Street, Sligo. Donations accepted at the side door, 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday · Furniture collection and delivery: 087 063 9659

Palliative Care Is Not the End of the Story

In this episode of The Journey Together, Tara Rafter is joined by Dr Anna Cleminson, Consultant in Palliative Care at North West Hospice, where she has spent more than a decade supporting individuals and families living with life-limiting illness. Anna grew up at a breakfast table where palliative care was already a conversation; her father trained under Dame Cicely Saunders in London, and that early exposure shaped a career built around listening first and treating second. She talks through what the consultant role really involves across community, hospital and inpatient settings, why palliative care is so often misunderstood as "the end of the road," and the small day-to-day moments that good care protects. Warm, candid and full of practical reassurance, this is a conversation that gently dismantles a lot of the fear that surrounds the word "palliative."

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"You continue to contribute to the lives of those around you… one of the beauties of palliative care is that you can grow and develop and learn as individuals right up until the day that you die."

"Ideally we're a silent companion, one that you don't see. We're there if you need us, and then we're not visible… so you can be you and dip your toe into that water when you need it."

Guest: Dr Anna Cleminson, Consultant in Palliative Care, North West Hospice

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: Verver Creative Digital Media

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠

Why Palliative Care Isn't a White Flag

Dr Conor Mitchell is a GP partner at Bayview Family Practice in Ballyshannon, GP lead for CHO Sligo South Donegal, and a long-time collaborator with North West Hospice. In this conversation he offers a warm, practical GP's-eye view of palliative care, dismantling the idea that it only belongs at the very end of life. Conor speaks about the dual carriageway of treatment and palliative approach running side by side, the importance of having your GP rather than just any GP, and the four domains of need; medical, psychological, social and spiritual, that a good palliative approach holds. With humour, humility and a deep respect for the families doing the daily work at home, he reminds listeners that palliative care is about living longer, living better, and living the way you want.

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"It's not a white flag. We're on a dual carriageway. On one lane there's palliative care, and on the other there's the treatment you're going through."

"The hardest journey is from the waiting room to the consultation room. Once you go in there to start this journey, every little bit becomes easier."

Guest: Dr Conor Mitchell, GP Partner, Bayview Family Practice, Ballyshannon

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: Sligo Cancer Support Centre

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠

Supporting People to Stay Where They Feel Themselves

Regina Henry is a public health nurse who has spent her career in community care, walking alongside people from newborns through to end of life. In this conversation she speaks about the quiet, layered work of supporting someone to stay in their own home — coordinating the team, noticing the small losses, easing the load on family carers, and respecting that the patient must always be at the centre. Regina describes the public health nurse as a bridge, holding the pieces together between GP, hospice team, occupational therapist and family. Her message is simple: reach out earlier than you think you should, lean on the team, and remember that families are doing far more than they give themselves credit for.

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"It's not about letting things get bad enough or letting somebody get sicker or weaker. It's about asking for help sooner."

"We don't expect them to be experts. They're somebody's son, they're somebody's daughter. They may never have signed up to be a carer."

"Their own bed, their own chair beside the range. That's where we all want to be."

Guest: Regina Henry, Public Health Nurse

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: MABS : Money Advice and Budgeting Service

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠

Dignity, Independence and Everyday Living

Aoiffe McCarroll is a senior occupational therapist with over twenty years of experience across oncology, haematology and palliative care, now dedicated full-time to the inpatient unit at North West Hospice. In this conversation she dismantles the idea that OT is only about discharge planning or equipment lists. Aoiffe speaks about meeting people in the ordinary moments of a day — getting dressed, having a cup of tea, planting a window box, attending a granddaughter's confirmation — and finding the practical, creative adaptations that let someone stay themselves. Through stories of a confirmation outing, a non-slip mat at lunchtime and a father playing football with his son in a new way, she shows how OT protects dignity, identity and meaning right through a palliative journey.

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"What's important to me in a day could be very different to what's important to you, and what's important on a Monday might be very different to a Friday evening."

"We're meeting people at their most vulnerable, and it always makes me think it's the small things that matter."

"By adding in those three little changes — a non-slip mat, a plate with a lip, a wider-handle fork — this gentleman remained independent with feeding."

Guest: Aoiffe McCarroll, Senior Occupational Therapist, North West Hospice

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: Riverside Hotel Sligo

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠

Rehabilitation, Independence and Everyday Joy

Lynn O'Connor is a chartered physiotherapist with 25 years of clinical experience, now working full-time in palliative care at North West Hospice. In this conversation, she pulls apart the misconception that physiotherapy is only about sports injuries and recovery to full function. Lynn explains how physio in a palliative setting is really about meeting people where they are, breaking the things they love into bite-sized pieces, and giving people permission to keep doing what matters — from weeding a metre of garden to wiggling your toes during the ad breaks.

Discover The Journey Together, a podcast by North West Hospice Charity. Hear advice, personal stories, guidance and emotional support for patients, families, and caregivers navigating palliative care.

"There can be little losses every day… but rehabilitation can make the absolute most of the abilities you do have."

"Exercise isn't complicated. It's just about moving your bits. Any bits that you have, move them."

Guest: Lynn O'Connor, Chartered Physiotherapist, North West Hospice

Host: Tara Rafter, The Navigation Coach

Show music: #mobygratis @mobygratis

Supported by: North West Hospice Charity Shop

This podcast is produced by Verver

by ⁠⁠North West Hospice Charity⁠⁠