Theme
Volunteering in the Community
There are 500 volunteers in north Surrey, across one acute hospital, one mental health trust and two Primary Care Trusts, North Surrey PCT and Surrey Heath Woking PCT with a catchment population of 500,000. The Voluntary Services Manager is also responsible for the volunteers involved in the patient panel and the Expert Patient Programme, and recruits for all types of volunteers through local Councils for Voluntary Service and the Volunteer Centre, as well as using posters, advertising and the local press.
Volunteers perform a wide range of tasks within different community health settings which include:
- Providing refreshments and clerical support in Community Hospitals
- Visiting patients in Community Hospitals
- Supporting in-patients to use bedside TV and telephone services
- Co-ordinating the hospital car service
- Meet and greet services for outpatient clinics
- Holding hands with people undergoing cataract surgery, to provide communication between the patient and the medical team
- A newspaper/current affairs group in the neurological rehabilitative unit
- Co-ordinating artwork displays in corridors and waiting areas
- Proving practical help by preparing rooms in baby clinics in community settings
- Looking after toddlers while their mothers attend a post natal exercise class
- Supporting an ante natal service in prison
- Chatting to people who attend an Angina Support Group at the Community Hospital
- Providing an information service in a GP’s surgery
- Bereavement Counselling
- A volunteer cat in the palliative day care unit (who had her photo in Health Service Journal) and also won the National Rescue Cat of the Year Award in 2003
The PCTs don’t place volunteers in individuals’ homes as there are plenty of volunteering opportunities within the community, and they are not insured for placements in domestic settings.
Working in the community is more challenging, for both volunteers and the Voluntary Services Managers, as the volunteers are on more sites, such as Community Hospitals, GP Surgeries, Church Halls and other non NHS premises. The volunteers can become quite isolated from the Voluntary Services Manager as their main point of contact will be the health professional they see each week. If there are changes to personnel or any difficulties the volunteer needs to know that the Voluntary Services Manager is available and accessible. For this reason it’s particularly important to have ways to keep in touch, such as volunteers’ lunches, newsletter and telephone contact.
For further information contact:
Freda Larham
01932 722259
freda.larham@nsurreypct.nhs.uk
