0ur Services
The ‘Palliative Cancer Namibia‘ is a Registered Sub-Acute Medical Centre with our focus on rehabilitative, stabilisation, hospice, and end of life care offering the following (but not limited to) services:
Symptom & Pain Management
Managing symptoms like pain, nausea, shortness of breath, and fatigue is central to palliative care. The care team tailors treatments to control symptoms effectively, ensuring patients are as comfortable as possible.
Psychological Support
Chronic illness can lead to psychological chaltenges such as depression, anxiety, and stress. Palliative care provides emotional support and counselling to help patients and families cope with these difficulties.
Spiritual & Cultural Support
Palliative care respects the beliefs, values, and traditions of the patient and family. Spiritual care may include guidance from a chaplain or other spiritual advisors, helping patients find peace and fulfilment.
Advance Care Planning
Palliative care teams assist patients in making informed decisions about their treatment preferences. This includes advance directives and end-of-life care planning, empowering patients to communicate their wishes.
Family & Caregiver Support
Illnesses affect entire famities, not just the patient. Palliative care teams offer education, resources, and counselling to help families understand the patient’s condition and learn how to provide care.
Coordination of Care
Palliative care involves coordinating between different healthcare providers to ensure that all aspects of the patient’s needs are met. This helps streamline care, minimize hospital admissions, and facilitate smoother transitions across different settings (e.g., from hospital to home).
Bereavement Support
Some palliative care services offer support to families after a loved one’s passing, helping them cope with grief through counselling and support groups.
Interdisciplinary Care Approach
PCN follows an interdisciplinary care approach where all medical, care, administration and support stakeholders join efforts to work out the best possible care plan for the patient and their family is the core focus of palliative care.
Compassionate Care, Wherever It’s Needed
At Palliative Care Namibia, we believe in delivering holistic, patient-centered care—whether in our dedicated in-patient facility or within the comfort of home. Through House Zietsman, our first in-patient unit, and our home-based care program, we provide specialized support, ensuring dignity, comfort, and quality of life for patients and their families.
In-Patient Care
“House Zietsman” is situated at 3 Jan Jonker Road, Klein Windhoek, in Windhoek, and serves as the first in-patient unit of Palliative Care Namibia by Cancer Association of Namibia (WO30).
The residence can accommodate up to 22 patients in ward, private and convalescent care rooms.
Named in honour of Dr Anelle Zietsman, a mentor and much-loved cancer care specialist in Namibia, and who have support CAN and palliative care in Namibia since the early 1980’s ; the focus on interdisciplinary and holistic “whole care” to benefit our “friends”(patients) echoes through the corridors of the care unit. The tranquil setting was specifically chosen to encourage a peaceful and calming “homely” environment for persons entrusted into our care for either rehabilitative or recovery (convalescent ) care; or, when embracing their final journey in this lifetime.
Home-Based Care
Palliative Care Namibia will not only develop strategic palliative/hospice care centres in Namibia (and/or partner with similar or assisting to upgrade similar units to have a benchmark standard in terms of service, support and care delivery) , but also aims to address the need for a “specialized homely environment” where patients can either recover, stabilize or have a dignified end of life.
Quality training in home-based caregiving and rural capacity building to aid the local communities country-wide is a critical component of our core focus. PCN itself will benchmark with similar institutions in the Western Cape of South Africa, while specialization in this field of study is already underway through the University of Cape Town’s Palliative Care Program where three Namibian doctors and a nurse (of whom CAN is sponsoring one doctor and one nurse) are half-way through their specialisation courses.
This means that care workers will now be trained and equipped to take care of patients at home, in their loving and known environments, to cut on stress and trauma of being hospitalized and/or forced into “unfamiliar environments” for prolonged periods that in the end, only contribute to trauma.
Need support? Contact us to learn how we can help.