Support and counselling

The Home Care team (Brückenpflege) at Heidelberg University Hospital is the link between the hospital and the patient's home environment. It supports tumour patients during the transition from hospital to their own four walls and ensures that patients receive the best possible care at home after their hospital stay.

The members of the Home Care team are registered nurses with specialised training and many years of professional experience. They have in-depth medical knowledge.

Goals

• Early planned discharge
• Coordinated cooperation with outpatient care services
• Strengthening the motivation of caring relatives through psychosocial and professional counselling
• Shortening the number of days spent in hospital
• Contact between hospital and home
• Avoidance of inpatient readmission
• Respect for the patient's dignity and self-determination

Contact us

Home Care (Brückenpflege) at the UKHD

Office hours: Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The hospital chaplaincy team at Heidelberg University Hospital accompanies you during the days of illness - with worries, hopes and fears. In addition to religious services in the various clinics, the hospital chaplains also offer personal consultations at the patient's bedside.

The chapels in the Head Clinic and the Surgical Clinic or the Room of Silence in the Women's Clinic are also available for personal prayer outside of church service times.

There are chaplains in all clinics. The nursing staff will be happy to put you in touch with them. In an emergency, a member of the chaplaincy team can be contacted at any time, even at night and at weekends, via the information desk at the gynaecological clinic.

The women's clinic reception desk can also put you in touch with a chaplain from another Christian religious community or a religious community based in Heidelberg.

Further pastoral care services for employees of the clinic, patients, relatives and interested parties can be found on the website of +punkt, the ecumenical pastoral care centre in Neuenheimer Feld.

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The Cancer Information Service (KID) of the German Cancer Research Centre has been the point of contact for anyone seeking advice on cancer since 1986. It offers comprehensible and scientifically sound information on the entire spectrum of oncology. The service is aimed at anyone who has questions about cancer: patients, their families and friends, as well as people who want to find out about cancer prevention and early detection.

The KID experts will answer your questions free of charge on the phone, by e-mail and during consultation hours in Heidelberg and Dresden. The information is always generally understandable, scientifically sound and up to date, thus helping you to find your way around the healthcare system.

Contact us

Consultation hours of the KID in Heidelberg - appointments and registration: 
Tel.: 06221 42 2890

Telephone information:
Tel.: 0800 420 30 40 (free of charge daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.)

E-mail: 
krebsinformationsdienst(at)dkfz.de

Further information, background information and current news as well as link tips can be found on the website of the Cancer Information Service.

The Purple Ladies and Gentlemen are volunteers at the hospital who come from a wide variety of professions and are sometimes already retired.

As a rule, the Purple Ladies and Gentlemen volunteer once a week for half a day at the hospital and can be recognised by their delicate lilac-coloured uniforms. During this time, they try to make the patients' stay in the hospital on the wards and in the outpatient clinics easier by providing small support services. The team takes time for a personal chat, accompanies patients to examinations and is also happy to run errands.

The team is active both on the wards of the clinics and in the waiting areas of the outpatient clinics and tries to reduce tensions, alleviate fears, encourage patients and instil confidence in the clinic with their help. Patients in wheelchairs or lying down also find help from the Purple Ladies and Gentlemen.

Being told the diagnosis of a serious illness is very stressful for most people and their relatives. The uncertainty about what will happen next, the fear of pain, of serious procedures and therapies and the worry about the future affect patients and their relatives in equal measure. This is precisely why information and counselling, practical help and understanding support for patients and those around them are necessary in the event of a serious physical illness. They are considered an indispensable part of comprehensive therapy.

Staff at the Clinic for General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics with the affiliated Psycho-Oncology Section therefore support patients and relatives both as outpatients and during their inpatient stay in the event of mental stress in connection with an illness through discussions and counselling.

The counselling and therapy services include

• Psychosomatic diagnostics
• Crisis interventions for acute stress (e.g. severe anxiety)
• Supportive counselling in coping with the illness and its consequences
• Psychotherapeutic help
• Relaxation methods
• Couple and family counselling
• Arranging contacts to specific counselling and psychotherapy services

Contact is made via the nursing staff.

The patient advocate at Heidelberg University Hospital, Prof. Eike Martin, works on a voluntary basis and is independent and not subject to instructions from the hospital management. The core task of the patient advocate is to communicate and support the concerns of patients in the event of problems with the hospital.

Due to his many years of clinical work as a doctor - Prof. Martin was Medical Director of the Department of Anaesthesiology at Heidelberg University Hospital, among other things - he has a high degree of empathy and knowledge of legal and illness-related problem situations.

In his function, the patient advocate is an important addition to the complaints management of the University Hospital. Their work is subject to a duty of confidentiality and information is only passed on with the patient's consent. Utilisation is free of charge.

You can contact Prof Martin in person or by telephone during consultation hours. You can also send your enquiry by e-mail outside consultation hours. Please leave your contact details so that Prof Martin can get in touch with you.

Contact Prof. Martin

The staff of the hospital social services offer psychosocial counselling for patients and their relatives during medical treatment. They provide support in coping with a serious illness and its consequences.

The counselling services offered by the social services department include

• Psychosocial counselling and support
• Support in coming to terms with the illness
• Support in dealing with the social, professional and financial effects of the illness (including gradual reintegration into working life, ALG I and II)
• Counselling on medical rehabilitation measures (including AHB, geriatric rehabilitation)
• Advice on social law matters (e.g. severely disabled person's pass, sickness benefit, care benefits, power of attorney)
• Advice on home care (e.g. home help, meal services)
• Advice on inpatient care options (including short-term and long-term care, hospice)
• Initiation of appropriate measures (including help with applications, organisation)

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