Category: Volunteer Impact on Residents
Articles that relay stories and testimonials of how volunteers impacted nursing home residents
“Something Beautiful…”
While searching for articles concerning nursing home volunteers, I came across this article from Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging. It spoke to me, particularly in light of the pandemic. As I was reading, I felt a loving, warm embrace as Jeanette shares her experiences as a volunteer. In these days, I need, and I think, we may all need to feel that warm embrace. I hope you enjoy reading this article as much as I did.
“Reproduced with permission of American Society on Aging, from Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging, Jeanette Reid, 23, 4, 2000 Reasons to Grow Old: Meaning in Later Life (Winter 1999-2000), pp. 51-55 permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.”
“Living Creatively in a Nursing Home”
by Jeanette Reid
Continue reading ““Something Beautiful…””A volunteer gains an education in resilience, reflections, and courage.
Creating the Volun-Cheer Force – Review
by Corina Sadler, CVA, Volunteer Resources Supervisor at City of Plano
I just finished reading “Creating the Volun-Cheer Force: Rethinking the Way We Use Volunteers in Long-Term Care” by Paul Falkowski Ph.D.
I first met Paul (virtually) when he interviewed me for the VolunCheerLeader Podcast. He may have been surprised to know that my Bachelor’s was in Applied Gerontology and after several volunteerism experiences with older adults in my youth I thought that would be my career path.
“Timely, Not Counter-Intuitive”
As many of you know I strongly believe and have witnessed first hand how volunteers providing in-person companionship in nursing homes are key to providing quality of life for the people living there and while raising the morale of the people working there.
Professional Staff, Families and… Volunteers!
While researching this article, I came across the blog “The Voice of Volunteering,”[1] launched at the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) 15th World Congress in Madrid in May 2017. Moreover, while their focus is on volunteerism in the hospice and palliative care settings, in my opinion, it is more than relevant to the world of long-term care support systems (LTSS) in the United States. The EAPC Madrid Charter has three key aims:
Continue reading “Professional Staff, Families and… Volunteers!”The Power of Aloha
Discovering the word for compassion in Hawaiian tradition…
I’ve written a few articles on compassion, and so for this one, I decided to do something a little different. I began by pulling up the word compassion on the internet to see what would pop up. My search produced a window with the definition of compassion, and then a “translate ‘compassion’ to” another language box appeared.
I started translating compassion into various languages starting with Afrikaans “medelye,” to Albanian “dhembshuri,” to German “barmherzigkeit,” Haitian Creole “konpasyon,” and then Hawaiian “aloha.” I stopped there because I was always under the impression that the expression “aloha” was an Hawaiian greeting and further research shows that indeed it is. But, I went on to discover that “aloha” means so much more.
Continue reading “The Power of Aloha”Creating a Robust Volunteer Force: It’s not about free labor
Not surprisingly, one of the first objections I get for promoting and creating robust volunteer programs for long-term care communities is that it appears that I’m supporting the use of free labor. Nothing could be further from my mind! For sure, there are a lot of regulations and laws governing the use of volunteers but that should not deter you from creating and taking full advantage of a strong volunteer force.
Continue reading “Creating a Robust Volunteer Force: It’s not about free labor”Baycrest – A Look at a Premier Volunteer Program
For the past 25 years, I have been advocating for people to visit the people living in nursing homes. So often nursing home residents do not get visitors which may lead to feelings of loneliness and uselessness.
Over the last seven years I have been advocating for nursing homes to not only expand their volunteer programs but to expand the role of the volunteer in their nursing homes.
Continue reading “Baycrest – A Look at a Premier Volunteer Program”
Hillcrest Health Services Gets It!
It is becoming increasingly evident that providing quality of life through “person-centered” care is as much about nurturing meaningful relationships, that include trust, intimacy and empathy between two people. Volunteers, properly screened and trained are in the perfect place to provide that level of care. Hillcrest Health Services seems to get that!
Kristiansund kommune
As promised, VolunCheerLeader.com will highlight great volunteer programs and promote the idea that volunteers, i.e., “super” volunteers can take on increased responsibilities to become a trained and meaningful support for professional care staff who are often stressed and overworked, with residents, patients who suffer from what Dr. Bill Thomas calls the “Three Plagues: boredom, uselessness and loneliness.”
Daily, I’m on social media watching for hints of such programs and to my great 
delight, this title appeared in Twitter: “Volunteer Service for Nursing Home Residents.” I immediately clicked on it, and 
discovered Emilie Strommen Olsen, senior program designer for DesignIt. She and her team developed a nursing home volunteer program for a facility in Kristiansund, Norway. I immediately emailed he
r and arranged a Skype interview with her and the administrator of the nursing home, Stephanie Helland.