Volunteering magazine article, issue 117, May 2006
Supporting over one million people a year, UK hospice and palliative care faces the challenge of supplying hundreds of volunteer befrienders for patients and their loved ones.
Joanne Davies, Development Officer for Volunteering in Mentoring and Befriending, asks - is the voluntary sector ready for this?
October 8 is World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. This date will mark unified action across 50 countries, all celebrating and supporting the provision of quality, holistic care for the dying.
It is a timely point to reflect on the multitude of volunteers involved in this movement. Since the start of hospice records in 1977, there has been nearly a six-fold increase in adult units in the UK. When you consider that each hospice relies on hundreds of unpaid helpers, the responsibility and the value of the voluntary sector in this field becomes clear.
Volunteer befrienders make up a vital portion of the hospice care package. It is hard to map exactly how many volunteers are involved in this capacity because many people take on multiple roles across a range of hospice sites.
The 2004 IVR report 'Volunteering in UK Hospices: Looking to the Future' puts the total estimated figure at 98,000 with surveys indicating 18.2% involved in Patient Care and 4.9% bereavement services; both of these activities rely on one-to-one support with patients and loved ones.
Volunteer practioners should therefore ask themselves: how is the voluntary sector nurturing and growing this much needed befriending resource?
Diversity and Recruitment
'Don't put all your eggs in one basket' warns the adage, and volunteer managers within hospice and palliative care should pay heed when sourcing volunteer befrienders.
A popular recruitment strategy has been 'word of mouth' channels within the peer groups of existing volunteers. It could be argued that this method has almost been too successful!
A recent sector-wide report of 655 hospice volunteers found that only 4% were under 45 years of age and only 18% were male. In isolation these statistics do not pose a challenge, however this narrow stratum of valuable volunteers might well be depleted in the future by the sheer diversity of volunteer opportunities, or the prospect of working later into life. How can we reverse this trend?
Perhaps the answer lies in focused and frank marketing. 'People may not see me as unique, but I've never died before' are the opening words that hit you when you enter the Befriending Network website. This is one of the Home Office Goldstar projects that recruits outreach befrienders for the terminally ill in London. The Network has an incredible mix of volunteers aged from 21-70 drawn from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds. Perhaps the directness of their quotes and the honesty of their specific and rigorous selection process is one of their paths towards diverse recruitment.
The web has also provided an innovative recruitment channel. In 2004 Help the Hospices, together with Time Bank, launched '13 days", a campaign aimed at encouraging a younger audience to volunteer for their local hospice. Over 1,900 young people have registered to volunteer and receive further information. To mark the Year of the Volunteer, the charity also launched a new website, featuring case studies and information about the diverse range of volunteering opportunities available.
Training and Support
Unfortunately for a care organisation with a team of newly recruited volunteer befrienders, the work has only just begun! Befriending those touched by terminal illness places demands onto volunteers which must be addressed by the placement organisation. The Mentoring and Befriending Foundation (M&BF) is clear that training is vital to nurture the volunteer befriender.
Since its launch in June 2005, this Home Office funded body has undertaken rigorous consultation with volunteer befriending groups regarding their information needs.
Sue Wragg - a Development Worker for M&BF - staged training on Loss and Bereavement as a result of their needs analysis. "Participants all identified the need to include bereavement information and support systems in volunteer inductions as well as in follow-up training," explained Sue. This is already typical of many hospice training programmes, however, some take the 'induction' a stage further - The Children's Hospice Association Scotland require all of their befriending volunteers to have spent time helping out in other hospice activities as preparation for taking on one-to-one responsibilities.
The Befriending Network feels that an holistic support package is the key to aiding their volunteers. Before being matched, new befrienders attend four days of compulsory training and can also opt to receive individual aftercare through one of the Network's supervisors who are all trained in counselling or psychotherapy.
Support Structures
Another preparation mechanism the Network uses is monthly volunteer support groups - these provide a chance for befrienders to learn, share and to celebrate their achievements. Support and safety cannot be separated so when another palliative care scheme, Grove House at Home, started an outreach befriending service for their clients, they insisted that volunteers always 'phone in' after a visit, thus providing important contact and assurance. This might sound like a lot of training but Olwen Minford - a Trainer-Supervisor for the Befriending Network - believes that volunteers appreciate the investment that is made in them and welcome a broad exploration of the issues involved.
The overall volunteering experience is undoubtedly improved when organisations take time to implement and promote good practice in areas such as volunteer recruitment or supervision. These rewards can be magnified if volunteers - such as care befrienders - are working with vulnerable clients, or in isolated situations.
The Mentoring and Befriending Foundation runs its own bench mark called the Approved Provider Standard, whilst Investing in Volunteers is also a valuable standard for befriending initiatives.
Trinity Hospice, which has a team of in-house befrienders, was the first organisation to achieve Investing in Volunteers back in 2000, and has continued performing at this high standard with reaccreditation this summer.
Anne-Marie Zaritsky, their Voluntary Services Manager, feels that implementing Investing in Volunteers has had a number of benefits.
Firstly, it sends a clear message to the community that 'volunteers are valued and respected at Trinity Hospice. Secondly, it has tangible results - by offering bespoke training/volunteer buddying and through clarifying operating structures, Trinity Hospice has not only retained existing volunteers but has increased diversity with 60% of its new 2005 volunteers being under 35 years of age.
While the legacy of any article is limited what remains boundless is the service of one-to-one care volunteers. To quote one client involved in the Befriending Network - 'My befriender kept me mentally alive'. If volunteers provide a service of this magnitude then don't they deserve the very best levels of support and guidance?
Useful web links:
Befriending Network: http://www.befriending.net/
Mentoring and Befriending Foundation: http://www.mandbf.org.uk/
Help the Hospices: http://www.helpthehospices.org.uk/
Help Your Hospice (YV05 website): http://www.hospicevolunteering.info/
Trinity Hospice: http://www.trinityhospice.org.uk/
'Volunteering in UK hospices: Looking to the Future' can be found at http://www.ivr.org.uk/
Children's Hospice Association Scotland: http://www.chas.org.uk/
Grove House: http://www.grove-house.org.uk/
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day: http://www.worldday.org/
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