Our vision is to develop our current home nursing service to allow carers of Hospice at Home patients with longer term needs to receive either a full day, or if required a whole day and night off, on a regular fortnightly basis. The aim of the 'Be Yourself Programme' is to encourage carers to 'be themselves' and use this extended time to not just rest or carry out essential daily chores, as our current Hospice at Home service is able to provide, but to allow them to continue their own social life by taking part in hobbies, groups or activities which are important to them. This helps to maintain their social support systems so that at the point of bereavement there will already be a support network in place which is part of their lives, not something they have to seek out at what can be a difficult and lonely time. One carer reported that she enjoyed visiting the theatre with like minded friends but since being a full time carer she had been unable to do this, losing touch with her friends. This is the sort of person the Be Yourself Programme is aimed at. By giving carers this chance to have a regular extended break from what is often a 24 hour role, we also want to maintain their ability to cope with caring at home long term and avoid crisis and/or potential acute admission to hospital. Our current Hospice at Home service provides an average visit of 3.5 hours to allow them to carry out essential chores, or in the case of a night sit the chance to have a night of uninterrupted sleep. Although this level of service is appreciated, our annual audit has shown that what carers really wanted was the opportunity to have a complete 'day off'. Initially 28 hours per week will be allocated to the programme to provide either 3 full days or 1 whole day and night off per week to carers. By April 2009 we would anticipate being able to offer 8 sessions per month to carers. The total cost of providing this service for one month is £2,381,000, or for six months £14,286.