Hospice Needs Valley Volunteers

Hospice of Spokane needs volunteers in the Valley.

“There’s a big need,” said Jim Edwards, director of volunteers for Hospice.

He hopes to find at least 10 Valley residents who are interested in helping support families with loved ones suffering a terminal illness.

“We have some good people in the Valley,” Edwards said. But the larger the pool of volunteers, the better.

Most of all, the non-profit agency’s need is for volunteers who are available during weekday hours. Of the 12 Valley volunteers now active with Hospice, 10 work fulltime.

Volunteers who can spend evening and weekend hours are also welcome.

Volunteers fit into a Hospice team with nurses and social workers. Each client case undergoes a weekly review by one of two doctors who work with Hospice.

New volunteers go through a training course that includes the agency’s mission and code of ethics, the rest of the team’s role, the need to focus on needs of the client and family, ways to take care of one’s self emotionally, spirituality and bereavement.

Volunteers span all ages, from older teenagers to those in their 80s, Edwards said. “I would hope sometime to do training in the high schools,” he said.

Backgrounds vary, too.

“Sometimes people from different backgrounds find each other the most interesting,” Edwards said.

Mostly, what volunteers need is the ability to give.

“People really leave their own baggage at the door, their own problems, own worries, to be there for the other person. Our focus is to be where the client is. And it seems it really happens that way,” Edwards said.

Hospice training classes start in September, with a second course tentatively planned for October.

The September training involves seven sessions, which will run from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

In October, the training will run with daytime sessions. That training will occur only if enough people express interest, Edwards said.

For more information, call Edwards at 456-0438.

, DataTimes