Work near your home! As a Hospice Patient Support/Companion Volunteer, you will be assigned to support a hospice patient and their family in your community. You provide a listening ear, a hand to hold, and the presence of a caring heart. You help make final wishes come true. You provide respite for the caregiver. You are a reassuring presence for the spouse or other family member that hesitates to leave their loved one, but needs to run some errands or take a short break. The time commitment for this position is 3-4 hours a week. You will arrange a time with the patient’s caregiver that works best for you and the patient.

OR

Join our Vigil Volunteers team. These volunteers are Hospice Patient Support/Companion volunteers who are called at a moment’s notice to be with a patient who is actively dying. You know how to be still, sit at bedside, and just savor the quiet moments with a patient and their family. You are present like the light in a storm. You calm the waters. You bear witness to suffering and families are grateful for your presence.

Most Hospice Patient Support/Companion volunteers (noted above) also sign up for either daytime or night owl vigil duty, but it is not required. The time commitment for a vigil volunteer is generally 2 or more on-call days (or nights) a month at 4 hour intervals. You select the days (or nights). You are only called if needed.

Volunteer Requirements:

Because of the direct patient and family interaction, all of these positions require Patient Care and Family Support volunteers to go through specialized Patient Care Training. This process teaches you about hospice and terminal illness and helps prepare volunteers to interact with and support our patients and families.

• Must be at least 18 years of age.
• Successful adjustment to personal losses and no personal loss within past 12 months.
• Successful completion of volunteer training program.
• Clearance from appropriate health screenings, background check, fingerprinting.
• Agree to mandatory policy statements.
• Minimum commitment of 1 year of service; at least 3-4 hours per week.
• Supportive of hospice concept, and willing to serve others in a volunteer capacity.
• Comfortable working with families with different cultural and religious values.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Previous volunteer experience preferred.
• Independent means of transportation.