The Palliative Care Home Care Programme cares for those in their home who are in the final stages of their lives and unable to travel to hospital.

A doctor, a nurse and a social worker from Palliative Care travel within a 50km radius of Vellore to visit patients and their families at this bleak time. About 120 patients a year are provided with pain relief and other drugs and the family and community are guided in how best to support the patient. Most of the patients are very poor, often the nature of their illness causes prejudice and some are even abused.

There is effectively no income from this service so the travel, drugs and staff time must be paid for. A contribution to Palliative Care will ensure that a terminally ill patient and their family are supported at a critical time.