Melbourne Citymission Palliative Care are looking for volunteers for people with terminal illnesses living at home in the cities of Hume, Moreland, Darebin and Yarra.
As a palliative care volunteer, you will be making an important contribution to the end-of-life care provided by their dedicated interdisciplinary staff including doctors, nurses and counsellors. By visiting clients and their carers on a regular basis, you will help to provide the emotional, practical and spiritual support they need to achieve the best possible quality of life at a significant and often difficult time in their lives.
Your initial training will include communication and listening skills, dealing with loss and grief, spirituality and a basic understanding of life-threatening illness. You will also meet and share experiences with other volunteers at ongoing training sessions throughout the year, and be supported every step of the way by your Coordinator of Volunteers.
Palliative care volunteers offer help through respite sitting, companionship, shopping, transport, gentle hand massage, bereavement follow up and administration/office duties.
Working in palliative care is one of the most rewarding volunteer choices you can make.
The opportunity to draw on your own reserves of compassion and caring will not only make a huge difference in the lives of people living with a terminal illness, it will also enrich your own life.
Anyone can volunteer, however palliative care volunteering involves dealing with death and dying, so it’s not for everyone. While you do not need formal qualifications or previous experience in palliative care, your volunteering role will require compassion and emotional maturity. For this reason, and because life experiences and life skills are enormously beneficial, palliative care volunteers are generally over the age of 18. Volunteers come from various backgrounds, however they share a common generosity of spirit and a willingness to help clients and carers living with a terminal illness.
he qualities required of palliative care volunteers are: patience; flexibility; reliability; understanding and acceptance of other peoples’ beliefs and values; the ability to listen and ‘be present’ with others; confidence in visiting independently; commonsense and good judgement.
If you are interested in volunteering in the Melbourne Citymission Palliative Care program, contact (03) 9486 2666.
