Hospice Volunteers Find Efforts Rewarding Organizers Say They Need Help, Especially With Direct Care

When Donna Schwartz’ husband was dying in 1989, hospice volunteers were there, lending a hand, helping with meals or just spending time with her.

“Just to be able to go to sleep for a few hours and know that they were there to care for him was a godsend,” she said. “They were always there for me. Some volunteers even slept at the house at times - I was never alone.”

Tommy Femreite also turned to hospice volunteers when his wife Maxine passed away the same year and said he couldn’t have survived without them and their assistance with everything from meals to a shoulder to lean on.

“We just think they’re the greatest people on earth,” he said from his Deary home.

Tommy and Donna Femreite have since married and have spent the past years trying to return the favor by helping out Hospice of the Palouse whenever they can.

“We’re not official volunteers, we haven’t gone through the training, but we have tried to help with meals and companionship,” Donna Femreite said. “It is just a wonderful organization and you can’t really appreciate all they do until you go through it. We both feel totally indebted to those people for the rest of our lives.”

Moscow’s Ruth Hoffman has never used hospice services, but like the Femreites, she is a hospice volunteer who has a great appreciation for the organization. Hospice is designed to help make terminally ill patients comfortable while helping patients and families come to grips with and prepare for death.

Hoffman has been a Hospice of the Palouse volunteer for seven years and said spending time with the patients and their families can be difficult, but also rewarding.

“It’s wonderful developing new friends, no matter how short-lived they might be,” she said. “It may seem a real sad and difficult task, but it’s very rewarding because you get to know people on such a close level.”

Hospice of the Palouse is grateful for volunteers like Hoffman, but organizers said they need more volunteers, especially direct care volunteers.

“We’re seeing an increase in patients who need and want more services,” said Suzanne Planck, Gritman Medical Center’s volunteer coordinator. “So more volunteers are always needed.”

Volunteers are the key to success for hospice groups, Planck said, because they do a majority of the non-medical aid offered to patients and families. A volunteer information and orientation session was held on a recent weekend in honor of National Hospice Month.

Some people may be reluctant to deal with death, but there really is nothing to be afraid of, she said.

There are no qualifications needed to volunteer, just a willingness to help. In addition to the direct care there are also a number of office jobs and fund-raising events for volunteers, Planck said.