Brand New; project HELP Volunteer

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Exciting New Volunteer Opportunity: HELP Program

The Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) is an innovative model program designed to improve the hospital experience of older patients.

The major goals of the Hospital Elder Life Program are:

• To help patients maintain cognitive and physical functioning throughout hospitalization.
• To allow patients to be discharged from the hospital as independent as possible.
• To assist with the transition from the hospital to the community.
• To prevent unplanned readmission.

Volunteers play a crucial, central role in this program by carrying out program interventions directly at the bedside. The volunteers are not the "frosting on the cake", but rather they are the cake. This program gives volunteers a level of patient contact and responsibility that is unique among hospital programs. The training provided through the program will provide all the necessary skills to serve as a volunteer for the program.

• Each volunteer would visit up to 6-8 patients during their shift.
• Patients are "enrolled" in the program based on recommendation by the Elder Life Specialist.
• Patient can refuse the program.
• This would not include ICU patients.
• 16 hours of training is provided (8 hours classroom; then 8 hours of shadowing).
• Requires a commitment of a 3-4 hour shift every week for 6 months. HELP volunteers wear a different colored vest to differentiate them from other volunteers.

John Nieman, Manager Volunteer Services, john.nieman@aurora.org, 920-456-7013 ,