Helen Spiro, Volunteers Support and Development Manager at Nightingale, takes us through her day in the first of a new series of feature articles.
Shortly before 8.30 am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I arrive at Nightingale – a residential and nursing home for upward of 200 elderly Jews based in South London.
Today is Tuesday and my diary is full, but first I need to check my emails that have accumulated since Thursday evening.The news is not always good.
With an average age of 89 and a few residents over the age of 100, death is very much part of our life at Nightingale. Some deaths are expected and some are sudden and unexpected but there is always a huge sense of sadness especially where I have got to know a resident well. If I know a volunteer has been working with the deceased resident I phone them immediately to tell them the sad news.
Today, I am interviewing a prospective volunteer and inducting another. With a database of over 150 volunteers, life is never quiet and my job is often reactive.
Sid, an activities co-ordinator has already knocked my door asking for a volunteer to accompany R. on a shopping trip tomorrow, so the next half hour or say is taken up with phoning round to find someone.
Around 10.30 the prospective volunteer arrives. She has already filled in an application form which she received with extra information about the home.
We have a chat about her motivation for volunteering – she is a sixth former hoping to study medicine and would like some experience with older people (needless to say it also looks good on her UCAS form!).
We also fill in her CRB form and then spend the next hour walking around Nightingale. This is a good time to show volunteers around – there is an exercise class in the lounge, cooking in the kitchen, pottery and other art activities in the Arts and Crafts room as well as residents being taken to physiotherapy or the hairdresser.
Most volunteers, of whom less than 50% are Jewish, are amazed by the size of the home and I can quickly gauge how they will interact with the residents.
I have emphasised the importance of acknowledging residents as we pass them in the corridor – a smile and a good morning can make a big difference to their day.
I don’t want to repeat a mistake I made early on in my job when a new volunteer told me on her first day that she didn’t like old people and wasn’t coming back.
By 11.45, the prospective volunteer has left, enthusiastic and eager to start.I check the sign-in book to see who is in today.The day centre is up and running and I pop in to say hello to the volunteers in charge.
They are usually too busy to spend time chatting but, at least, I have showed my face. I bump into H. who comes in every week to do some personal shopping for residents.She has just been to France and we chat briefly about her holiday. H. and her husband are great supporters of the home helping to organise fund raising activities as well as befriending residents.
Round the corner come B (in her mid eighties) and S (in his early nineties). As good friends they volunteer three or four days a week and there is nothing they won’t do. At the moment the boardroom is busy with volunteers stuffing envelopes for the Housekeepers Appeal for Passover.
B and S are integral to this appeal in every way especially when envelopes come back with cheques that need to be opened and logged.
A group of volunteers from Wandsworth Voluntary Sector Development Agency are also helping meaning a task that can take up to three weeks is finished in less time.I pop up to say hello (and also to pinch a biscuit) and re-iterate how grateful we are for their help. I give them all a lunch voucher to eat in the staff dining room.
By now, it is time for a quick lunch break – I need this time to take stock and sit down for a little while although it would be quite easy to work through, sometimes I feel I am doing a five day a week job in three days!
Today I have lunch with A.Her father, who has dementia, is a resident in the home and following in the footsteps of her mother, A volunteers in the shop. We catch up on news (we both became proud grandmothers for the first time in 2006) and discuss the future of the shop.
In the early afternoon, a couple of sixth formers arrive from our local college.We have an ongoing project with this Catholic sixth form college placing around 12 youngsters a year as part of their enrichment programme.
They come in for about one hour during a break from lessons and befriend one of the residents who love to see youngsters who bring the outside world into their lives. They are young and trendy, the girls often jingling with sparkling jewellery and the mutual respect is palpable.
The volunteers love to hear stories from the past, it is, after all, history for them and the residents can never resist talking about their lives especially to interested youngsters.
At 2.30 a new volunteer arrives for induction. This takes about half an hour and the volunteer leaves with a handbook to read at home.
D. is an elderly retired gentleman who has recently moved back to South London.He, too, loves to chat but we have agreed that not only will he befriend some residents, but he will also help with the Tuesday Bingo session run entirely by volunteers.This is one of the most popular activities in the home, but with increasing frailty, residents need help to get down to the Lounge and help with placing their chips so often I will find six or seven volunteers helping.
At the end of the session, I join them for a cup of tea and marvel at the energy of these volunteers all of whom are well into their third age.
By now, I have been out of my office for a good part of the day and phone messages and emails need replying to. I am busy trying to organise a sponsored volunteers’ walk as well as a “So you want to be a Volunteer at Nightingale” information afternoon to celebrate National Volunteers week in June and I need to get this poster printed. There are messages on my answer phone requesting information about volunteering at Nightingale and they need replying to.
At four o’clock, I run four floors up (helps me keep fit!) to the boardroom for our first Passover logistics meeting. This year 26 guests will be coming to Nightingale for the Passover festival.
We like to give them a good experience and I rally my volunteers to come in and help, perhaps by sitting with residents over lunch or tea or to show them around the home and where activities are taking place.
The end of the day is looming and there is so much I haven’t done.The statistics folder stares me in the face – it is early April and I haven’t finished the February hours yet.A pile of papers need filing and the Volunteers Newsletter needs to be sent out to 180 people – a lot of envelopes to prepare……………..perhaps I need a volunteer!
Useful background information:
Nightingale, originally known as The Home for Aged Jews, was formed by an amalgamation of The Widows Home Asylum and The Hand-in-Hand Asylum in Wells Street, Hackney, in the East End of London in 1895. Both these asylums dated back to 1840.
