Volunteer Caregivers . . . Making Each Day Count!

Why should I consider being a hospice volunteer?  Because hospice volunteers do important and rewarding work! Patients and their families depend on hospice care. No one else provides the kind of services hospice does. By attending to the needs of both patients and their loved ones, hospice care can be a huge comfort for the entire family.

Hospices depend on volunteers. Without the efforts of volunteers, hospices could not continue their important work. Volunteers are the backbone of the hospice team. They allow hospice to provide services it otherwise could not offer. In addition, volunteers usually:

• Form close bonds with patients and family members. Patients often tell volunteers things they can't tell their loved ones.
• Help people communicate by encouraging each person to say what he or she needs to say. Volunteers help open the way for people to talk honestly.
• Grieve with the family once the patient dies. Seeing the family all the way through the death is part of the volunteer's role.

Hospice volunteers are special people. One thing all hospice volunteers have in common is a true desire to help. It is important for volunteers to be:

• Caring -Volunteers focus on needs of patients and family members and how to best meet them.
• Emotional maturity - Working as a hospice volunteer can be an intense experience. Volunteers must be emotionally up to the task.
• Comfortable talking about death and dying - Hospice workers approach death and dying in an open, direct and practical way. This can help others face the emotional, spiritual and financial preparations they need to make.
• Committed - Volunteers are as dedicated to their work as other health-care professionals.

 Volunteers get plenty of help from their hospice staff.