Supporting Those in Need: My Experience as a Hospice Volunteer
By Hannah Ford, Mercy Hospice, Collin County LIVING WELL Magazine
I always love the “get to know you” conversation when you first meet a new person. The back and forth dialogue…where are you from? What do you do? And so on and so forth. Whenever I told people that, in addition to working, I also volunteered for hospice, I would get the same response. It would be almost a slight recoil at first and then inevitably I would hear, “I could never do that…that’s just so sad!” My reply would consistently be, “Oh it’s not that way at all! Volunteering for hospice has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.”
It’s true. Volunteering for hospice has been the one thing I’ve done where
I genuinely provided comfort and support to a patient or family in the final
stage of life. Ultimately, the smallest things had the largest effects –
reading poetry or scriptures, showing a photo book, playing music, listening to
the patient reminisce, or simply holding their hand. During my first few
volunteer visits, I quickly learned that the activity I tried to do with the
patient was often less important than the mere fact that I was offering
companionship.
Volunteering was not limited to spending time with the patients. It also
consisted of offering support to the family related to the patient. There
were many times when the caregiver was overwhelmed and exhausted, and my
volunteer visit provided them a well-deserved break. Knowing that someone
was there to sit with their loved one allowed the family member time to
complete essential tasks without feeling guilty. The fact of the matter
was that my visit as a hospice volunteer often ended up being the highlight of
that patient or family member’s day.
Volunteering has taught me that I need to accept the patient’s or family’s
situation for what it is, regardless of my own beliefs. My role was to
“walk” beside the patients who were terminally ill, comforting them and their
families along the way, as well as providing them with practical help through
caring, warmth and understanding.
Volunteering for hospice will change the way you look at life. Working
with families who have been providing care for a terminally ill loved one can
be a rewarding and powerful experience. As a hospice volunteer, I learned that
the end of life is a sacred time. These experiences have taught me to
embrace life and live each day to the fullest.
Author Hannah Ford is volunteer coordinator for Mercy Hospice. Mercy Hospice
specializes in end-of-life care and may be reached at 972-459-9992 or 866-566-3729.
