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| "The
best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service
of others.” |
- Ghandi |
Volunteers Are Helpful in
Many Ways
You may be wondering how you would find a volunteer useful. Some
of the services which they’ve provided include:
- Giving respite breaks to caregivers so that they
- can leave the patient for a period of time.
- Driving patients to the doctor.
- Going in with the patient to see the doctor and taking notes
to help in remembering.
- Doing chores or running errands.
- Sitting with a patient that is afraid to be alone.
- Reading to the patient.
- Listening to their story.
- Helping the patient and family record history though writing,
scrapbooks or video.
- Playing music.
- Helping with arrangements for funerals.
- Helping the families in their bereavement.
Being there.
2001 Volunteer Education Class
Our class of trainees was full of enthusiasm and brought with them
varied useful backgrounds. They studied dying and the grief process,
diseases and conditions, bereavement, how to give a patient care
and comfort, how to help alleviate stress for patient and family,
and the history and philosophy of hospice.
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Stories
From Our Volunteers
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A
Volunteers View
- by Mimi Merton
This is a letter we received
from one of our volunteers, after the death of the second
patient with whom she had worked. We’ve reprinted
it, with permission, to share with our readers the gratifying
experiences that volunteers so often have when working with
hospice patients.
“….I will remember M., just as I remember B.
(her first patient). I feel having been a hospice volunteer
for both of them has enriched my life. To spend time with
someone as they prepare to journey on from this life, is
something not everyone is given the opportunity to do. I
think of it as holy time—for the person who is dying
, and also for those who have been asked to share that time
with them.
M. was a sweet lady. She never spoke a word to me, and yet
we were able to communicate. (ed. Note– the patient
had had a stroke which took away her ability to speak.)
She gave me the gift of her smile, and that told me she
remembered me and that it meant something to her that I
was there. I hope, in some way, my being there was a comfort
to her and even a little ray of sunshine in her day. I’m
grateful to have spent time with M., and I cannot but feel
happiness for her now. When I think of her, I will smile.”
Mimi was a Hospice board member and volunteer from 1996-2002.
Comments Of A Recently Trained Volunteer
- by Nancy Moylan
My father’s handling of the end of
his life was a wonderful lesson to his nine children. Two
years ago he was diagnosed with a life threatening illness
and became a hospice patient in Tuckahoe NY, where he had
been a hospice volunteer for years. He knew the services
offered to families of hospice patients and suggested I
call the hospice on Nantucket.
I was fortunate to reach Charlene Thurston, who took the
time to listen and tell me about the services I might find
useful. The lending library and the Coping With Cancer Support
Group were very helpful. When a volunteer training class
was offered, I was delighted. After intensive week-end sessions,
classes were held weekly over the course of the winter.
I didn’t know what to expect from the training classes,
but by the last class I was equipped with the proper tools
to volunteer. I was incredibly struck by the thoroughness
of the training and look forward to giving back to hospice.
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