Volunteers are an integral part of palliative care, providing a wide range of support including personal care, respite care for caregivers, and companionship for the patient and their family. The presence of a volunteer is a profound gift for a person facing end-of-life.
“Volunteers are vital members of the palliative care team. In fact, hospice palliative care would simply not exist without them. The work that volunteers do every day on behalf of the dying is what makes our society a better place. It’s the essence of what it means to be human — caring for another person.” The Honourable Sharon Carstairs, P.C., OutCare Foundation Board Member
If you are a committed palliative care volunteer, thank you for what you do. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer it can be a very fulfilling role.
To learn more about volunteer opportunities in your community, visit the Hospice Association of Ontario’s website.
The following organizations offer palliative care volunteer opportunities:
- Beth Donovan Hospice
- Cornwall Hospice
- Dundas County Hospice
- Hospice Care Ottawa (Central West Hospice and May Court Hospice)
- Hospice Renfrew
- Roger’s House
“The clearest and most real experience in my life is when I am with people as they move towards death. Each time that someone allows me to be with them I am given a chance to be completely alive and without confusion. Susan Sontag wrote that “illness isnot a metaphor”. Dying is not a metaphor either. Oddly, as little as I understand what it means to die, there is no abstraction about it. What happens is what happens - and nothing else. I have to do to be a part of that is to show up and be present and aware.”
Gary Davis, Palliative Care Volunteer