In-patient care

The child and his/her family stay at Sterntalerhof between one and three weeks for our holistic, family-focused care. While they are here, we attentively and professionally take care of the physical, mental and spiritual needs of the child, the parents and the siblings with regard to their individual dignity. Our goal:

Finding peace, regaining energy and keeping hope
in a natural and loving atmosphere

In addition to regular care for families, two to three times a year we organise siblings’ weeks in which only siblings of seriously, chronically ill or deceased children are the focus. They stay one week at Sterntalerhof and this group experience is very valuable and holds many healing factors. The exchange of experience and activities with peers, and the feeling that you’re not the only one, promotes social connectedness. Fears, grief, problems and stories can be shared and borne together. Through nature, all of our animals, flexible and versatile support by a small team, by living a normal everyday life and by following a daily routine in a community, and last but not least by the exchange with other affected families, it is possible to cater to many of the physiological, mental, psychosocial and spiritual needs of the sick child and the parents and siblings. In addition to consulting the treating doctors and working with a pool of medical experts in caretaking on site, we focus on the following therapeutic-pedagogic work:

Our work is complemented by the committed work of our volunteer children’s hospice chaperones and if necessary by physiotherapy, massage, home care, etc.

These methodical approaches are the basis for designing an individual care plan based on our accumulated interdisciplinary know-how for each child/family at Sterntalerhof.

In 2013 we established the role of a mobile care coordinator taken over by a qualified social worker responsible for the needs of “our” families at their homes. Her focus is primarily on the family’s everyday life: what works well and strengthens them all; what else they might need. Her task is to provide the services needed and to consequently organise mobile caregivers.

The qualified social worker therefore has a very important bridging function for the families on their way back into a stable everyday routine.

How do we describe our work, when we have to put it in a nutshell?
"Holistic (whole-hearted) and family-focused guidance in life, death and grief"