Helen & Douglas House Hospice for Children and Young Adults is a registered hospice charity (no.1085951) based in Oxford, UK, providing palliative, respite, end-of-life and bereavement care to life-limited children, young adults, and their families.
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Helen House was the world’s first children’s hospice, set up in 1982 by Sister Frances Dominica to provide respite care to families with children suffering from life-limiting conditions.[1]
Douglas House was set up in 2004 [2], and was the world’s first hospice built specifically for young adults. The Duchess of Cornwall is the charities patron.[3] The charity has also featured in two BBC documentary series in 2007 & 2009.[4]
The hospice provides specialist palliative and respite care for children and young adults, as well as end of life and bereavement care.
The care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses, carers and therapists, and is supported in the main by donations from the public – less than 20% of the £4.5 million it costs to run the hospice houses comes from the public sector.