Life Force
Main Address
- Northern Health Centre
1st Floor
580 Holloway Road
London N7 6LB - 020 3316 1950
We are a multi-disciplinary team consisting of paediatric specialist nurses, respite nursery nurses, play specialist / youth worker and psychologists.
Life Force is a team of specialists, who provide care and support to families who have a child with a life limiting or life threatening condition living in the boroughs of Camden, Haringey and Islington.
Our aim is to provide enhanced support to families and ensure choice in place of care, especially at end of life.
Our team provides:
- Symptom management support
- Coordination of current services, accessing extra support for families when necessary
- Provision of respite/short breaks in the home
- To act as a keyworker
- Provision of play sessions in the home
- Pre and post bereavement support to the parents
- Pre and post bereavement support to the siblings
- Yearly party
- Yearly memory day for the bereaved family
Who we treat
We treat children from birth to 18 with a potentially life threatening or life limiting condition.
Referrals fall into one of the below ACT 2003 categories:
Category 1
Life-threatening conditions for which curative treatment may be feasible but can fail, where access to palliative care services may be necessary when treatment fails. Children in long term remission or following successful curative treatment are not included. Examples: cancer, irreversible organ failures of heart, liver, kidney.
Category 2
Conditions where premature death is inevitable, where there may be long periods of intensive treatment aimed at prolonging life and allowing participation in normal activities. For example, cystic fibrosis.
Category 3
Progressive conditions without curative treatment options, where treatment is exclusively palliative and may commonly extend over many years. Examples: Batten Disease, muscular dystrophy.
Category 4
Irreversible but non-progressive conditions causing severe disability leading to susceptibility to health complications and likelihood of premature death. Examples: severe cerebral palsy; multiple disabilities, such as following brain or spinal cord injury.
We will also consider short term respite support of six weeks for children being discharged home from NICU or hospital ward with a nursing need, to assist and support with transition to home from hospital, for example oxygen and NGT.
Objectives
- To coordinate care and to complement and expand existing services thus enhancing care and support
- To focus on the physical, emotional, social and spiritual elements of life, allowing the child to achieve their potential
- To ensure choice in place of care especially at end of life
- To provide bereavement support to the family following the death of a child
Useful resources
WellChild
Together for short lives
Monday to Friday, 8am - 6pm
Referrals are accepted from health and key professionals and the family. Please complete and return a referral form.
Locations See on a map
Last updated11 Sep 2023