he history of the hospice of Brescia was born from some considerations, due to the precariousness the uneasiness and
abandonment conditions of the people with life limiting illnesses in the advanced phase of the disease: in 1984 the
Congregation of the Ancelle Nuns of the Charity of Brescia, with the aid of some lay, has begun to work out a plan
that, in the light of the way of proximity to more the weak people and poor undertaken from the Italian Church,
could give one at least local solution to these difficulties.
 rational answer to the
requirements of these sick it can be born from the plan of a structure, new in Italy, based on the English experience
of the hospice, that it took to fit for the uselessness of the chance and specific cures for these patients and
concentrated its attention on those organisational aspects, architectonic and technical aiming to the satisfaction of
the primary needs of the person, first of all not to suffer, with to the availability of a vital atmosphere that rendered
meaningful for a how much possible a life near the end, with the possibility of a continuous contact with the family and
the friends, with locals and services adapted.
 nited to that it was
important to assure to the sick people and to its family a real freedom of choice articulating the hospice in way that it
comprised both the period in hospital and a servicing to domicile adequate to support the needs of the patient eager
for remain at home supplying with continuity the cures, the presence and the psychological support adapted, with
the aid of volunteers beyond that of social and sanitary operators.
 he first steps have promoted
the birth of an association of volunteers - VAD, Volunteers Domicile Assistance - that, after a careful and
psychological formation and after a vocational selection of the persons available, it has begun to occupy of the
attendance to sick neoplastic in advanced phase of disease, then, at the same time, beginning to trace the bases
for the creation of the real hospice. That has demanded a period of intense study with verifications on the field
(especially in England) to characterise the shape both architectonic and structural that revealed more adapted to the
Italian situation.
he sanitary tradition and
the experience of the Ancelle have directed to a choice that connected the values of welcome and sharing to give
proof of rationality's criteria and management's economization: it was chosen to take back a present structural
outline in some hospices English joining to the unit of cure of these sick men, called Centro di Cure Continuative, an
unit of rehabilitation that with its presence concurred the attainment of a number of places bed adapted with the
control of expenses for the general services and at the same time it could mitigated the feared onerous and
overwhelming climate of structure entire dedicated to people life-limiting illnesses. To complete the project there is
a "House of the Host" that is like an hotel acceptance for the relatives of the sick , this house doesn't
receive just the relative' sick shelted in the clinic but, more numerous, the family of the sick that they go to the
near "Ospedale Civile" of Brescia.
fter two years of job, in
July 1987 the Domus Salutis was inaugurated, it was operating in December of the same year. A short outline goes
to the name that read superficially could appear not very adapted: in truth the more pertinent reference is not only to
"salus" like health, possible sure objective for the rehabilitation unit, but to "salus" like
salvation, like protecting of the physical and spiritual dignity and, for who it believes, of the spirit, than instead
it can and it must be pursued also in the more serious situations.
t the beginning the unit
of consecutive Cures had 15 beds increased in 1989 to 26, situated to the third plan of the sanitary structure that
accommodates in the two below plans the rehabilitation unit. The unit, had ulterior important evolutions.
 t's useful at this point to
define at which sick the hospice of the "Domus Salutis", since of beginning of its activity, give
assistance. The expression "people with life limiting illnesses", often used at the wrong time, and in any
case not brilliant, is lend to numerous equivocal: the hospice doesn't cure just dying sick (would be too little) and not
ever of sick with too much high expectation of life and low incidence of symptoms (would be too much). We had to
establish a acceptance's protocol outlining the typology of the patients to dedicate them. We can resume so:
- Binding rules to refer to the acceptation in cure
- patients of every age affections of tumoral pathology
- prognosis of survival probable not advanced to six months
- patients who have exceeded the possibilities of specific cure surgical chemotherapeutic and radiotherapeutic
- necessity of palliative cures
- Rules reported to the possibility of integration between shelter and domicile assistance
- presence of the family and/or collaborating friends
- residence in the local Sanitary Company of the hospice is pertinence (actually it's the USL 18 of the Lombardia)
nother aspect that should be cleared regards the
administrative part: the choice primitive, constantly maintained in the time, to try and the entire hospice has been,
since the beginning of its activity, providing with the National Health Service and now "credited" in base
to the new dispositions of reform, consenting the access without economic or social obstacles to every needy
person of cures.
he job of the first years,
integrated from a domicile assistance with a team managed directly from the hospice, has concurred to better focus
the needs of the sick and their families, to characterise the advantages and the limits both from the practical point
of view and symbolic of one structure leaves of a wider building.
That has took to a revaluation of the space necessities and visibility arrive to the realisation of a real hospice, also
from the architectonic point of view: in 1992 we have begun to think to new construction that served better patients and
their families, that it was explicitly a place of sick assistance and cure turned to serious sick with technological
services that were comparable to hospital, but without the visual and environmental impact of type hospital worker.
he way of approach to the
plan it has been enough along in characterising the shape and the substance of this new pavilion that could be the
synthesis of the first years of job, afterthought and study: we have worked together with the architect in charge to
pass him our experience and our expectations, besides we have see analogous structures around Europe. An the
end of 1993 we had some proofs, various in the shape but joined from the cure with the sick and its family was the
centre of the construction; the choice has fallen on the plan of a circular structure that seemed to us better of the
others adapted to express the considerate and warm acceptance of the suffering persons.
n July 1994 the jobs are
begun in a contiguous area to the pre-existent structure: with rapidity in December 1995 we arrived at inauguration
and in May 1996 at operativity. |
