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By Cara Kelly
The High Country Home Health and Hospice will begin training
volunteers who wish to help with Hospice activities on Sept. 9.
“We cannot run without our volunteers; we rely on them for
so many things, from office work to patient care and respite,”
volunteer coordinator Janet Trivett said.
Several areas of volunteer work are in need of community members’
time, including patient/family care, bereavement, administrative
office work and fundraising.
Training sessions will be held over a period of four nights, Sept.
9,11,16 and 18, and will last from 6 to 9 p.m.
All areas of volunteer work, excluding fundraising, require the
full 12 hours of training, which can also be scheduled individually
with Trivett if someone can not make the scheduled classes.
“Volunteers are so important to us because they do care,”
Trivett said. “Everyone is not going to want to be a patient
volunteer, but we have so many different opportunities.”
Trivett said that caring for the elderly is not as overwhelming
as it sounds, and that often times patients simply need a friendly
face and listening ear.
The intense training is especially helpful for those who want
to work directly with patients, however, to prepare for unexpected
situations and entering someone else’s home.
“I think [the training] makes people more comfortable, you
feel more prepared,” Hospice assistant marketer Candice Cook
said.
Trivett attempts to match volunteers with specific patients whom
she feels would work well together, and will never place a volunteer
if she feels they are not ready for the emotional and physical
aspects.
“I try to put a new volunteer in the nursing home first because
I wouldn’t want them to go straight into someone’s home
alone,” Trivett said.
All volunteers must be at least 18 years of age, committed to
the hospice philosophy of care, possess good interpersonal skills,
have the ability to work within an interdisciplinary team setting,
as well as independently, and possess good organizational skills
and attention to detail.
Yet, anyone with a caring nature and the time to visit with patients
will make a good volunteer, according to the women at Hospice.
“As long as a volunteer is compassionate, they will be good,”
Cook said.
Family and patient care responsibilities must work with other
team members to provide supportive care to the terminally ill
patient and their family so the patient can die peacefully at
home.
If volunteers are nervous about emotional attachment to patients,
they can instead assist with office work, such as organizing and
implementing mailings, filing records, updating mailing lists
and maintaining accurate records of time.
Bereavement work is another option, which most often includes
calling homes of families who have lost loved ones, mailing cards,
making home visits and participating with grief groups and other
counseling.
Fundraising is another important part of the maintenance of High
Country Hospice. Fundraising volunteers do not need to go through
training, as they will assist mainly with creating video and audio
materials, distributing flyers and brochures, organizing merchandise
for flea market sales, making phone calls for publicity and answering
phones during the Radiothon.
“Even if someone thinks there is nothing they can do to help,
I would encourage them to call and talk to us because there is
so much that can be done,” Trivett said.
To sign up for training or other volunteer work, call Janet Trivett
at (828) 265-3926 or send an email to jtrivett@hchealth.net.
High Country Health and Hospice is located at 136 Furman Road,
Suite 4 in Boone.
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