Daytime Hospice Volunteering

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Direct Volunteers serve both patients and families in the home and/or nursing facilities. Typically, volunteers visit once a week or more, at the volunteers discretion. Activities might include socializing with the patient and/or family, listening to a life review with the patient, reading to or writing for the patient; playing games; running errands; listening to music; doing small household tasks or simply sitting quietly as a presence.

Training classes are offered to provide help in making every visit a good one. An online version may be useful to those unable to attend in-house trainings. A meeting with the Volunteer Coordinator after your initial training would be necessary.

Assignments are made as close to your home/office as possible. Volunteers are given choices of who and where they go.

Some things that a patient volunteer could do:

• Stay with the patient so the caregiver can go out.
• Be in the home so the caregiver can sleep.
• Read to patient.
• Light Meal Preparation
• Walk the dog.
• Make telephone calls.
• Write letters.
• Errands
• Grocery Shopping
• Pick Up Prescriptions
• Listen
• Provides practical help and emotional support to terminally ill patients and their families.
• Make regular home visits to offer friendship and diversion.
• Serves as a willing and sensitive listener.
• Facilitates communication between the patient, the patient's family, friends and other caregivers.
• Provides respite for the caregiver.
• Assists the patient and family in preparing for death, and for funeral and after-death arrangements.
• LISTEN, one of the most important things to do for a patient. Listening also gives clues as to what to ask about......