OT: Hospice Volunteers

[GreyhoundTrish]

This is completely off topic, but I wanted to invite all my new found friends and fellow reefers to become hospice volunteers. I am the Volunteer Coordinator and Bereavement Coordinator for the Somerville office of Caris Healthcare. We are a state-wide hospice, with the Somerville office covering these counties: Shelby, Tipton, Lauderdale, Haywood, Fayette, Hardeman, and McNairy.

Hospice is a special way of taking care of terminally ill patients who have chosen palliative (comfort) care over further curative treatments. We work with the patient and their families to provide comfort at the end of life, as well as spiritual, emotional, and psychosocial supoprt. We have a full team approach which includes a medical director, nurses, CNAs/Home Health Aides, Chaplain, Social Worker, as well as volunteers and bereavement support. We are there for the family as much as for the patient, which includes providing bereavement support for at least a year, following the death of the patient. Volunteers are there to extend our services, not to provide "free help".

If you have questions or are interestered, plese PM me. I also use pet therapy, hair stylists, massage therapists, etc.

 

[Reefdiver77]

Hi Trish. I am an "old" Hospice Nurse!! I worked for Hospice of West Tennessee for 10 years and was certified. I have been a CM with BCBST for 5 years now. I am still in close contact with my coworkers at Hospice. I volunteer at Camp Wings (Good Grief Camp) for bereaved kids. I will be the camp nurse for the entire weekend of the camp, which is 2 weeks away. I now Case Manage members who are in Hospice with our ins. co. I often tell people I left part of my heart with Hospice when I left. I think Neuroslicer's wife works at a Hospice in Memphis, as well. Welcome to the Reef Club.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Thank you for the welcome. I'll be interested to hear if his wife is in hospice too! Can you PM me info on Camp Wings? I have a patient I lost this past year who had a 12 year old daughter. I'd like to see if there's a way to arrange for her to go, if not this year, at least next year. If you know anyone in our 7 counties, that might be interested in helping us out, please let them know about us. I'm proud to say that our family feedback scores for our office in Somerville, where most recently the highest for ANY hospice office in the entire country, not just within Caris. I'm proud of our whole team, especially our administrator, who's also an RN, because she's one of my closest friends. I never thought I could do this, after losing both of my parents in the last 6 years, and not being able to be there for them (the lived in Wisconsin), but Joyce encouraged me, and now I thoroughly love what I do.

Also, another way anyone can help me, is by helping me get speaking engagements. Helping with contacts you may have with community groups, churches, etc. that would be interested in learning about hospice itself and the volunteer opportunities. That's our biggest way of recruiting is going to groups like that. You don't need to "get" the engagement for me, but if you belong to some kind of group, community or church, that might be interested, you can just let me know who I could contact to ask about coming to speak.

Thanks for letting me go OT, and I hope no one is too offended. This is a very good cause. I've even set up small freshwater aquariums for some of my patients and their families to help them with relaxation and give them something positive to think about, during the illness and through the bereavement. That's another thing that would be neat if anyone would be interested in doing.