麻豆传媒AV

Every volunteer has a story. Do they give of time and effort to help others, to fulfill someone else's need, or perhaps their own? To make a difference? To pay a debt? To feel a connection?

There are as many volunteers' stories as there are volunteers. But they are all a part of one bigger story - the story of what, collectively, volunteers can do.

Ask Darlene Kingwell, the regional co-ordinator of volunteer and spiritual services for Prairie North Health Region.

"Volunteers are there to support in the same way the staff is supporting better health, better care, better value and better teams."

This evening, Tuesday, April 1, there will be a gathering of 300 or more volunteers at the Knights of Columbus Hall in North Battleford where health region management and civic leaders will pay tribute to the volunteers of Prairie North. It's a thank you for all their many stories.

The provincial government's strategic priorities of "Better Health, Better Care, Better Value and Better Teams" may be the current mantra of the direction of health care in Saskatchewan, but health care volunteers have been working that agenda long before it became an official direction.

"Volunteers are here to enhance the services provided in health care," says Kingwell. "That means anything from long-term care to acute care or primary health. Volunteers are there to enhance by providing that connection with the community."

There have always been volunteers, and over the last three decades or so that important human resource has become formalized and is now a distinct entity within Prairie North Health Region. The beginnings date back to when there was no region, when health districts were still the administrative bodies of health care.

Kingwell would be the first to say this story is not about her, but a look back at her career does put things into perspective.

Twenty-six years ago today, April 1, Kingwell became the first co-ordinator of volunteer services for the home care program in the Battlefords. Meals on Wheels was a few years old at the time, and until that point had been "on the side of the desk of somebody who did scheduling."

After her time there, and after a year working at Saskatchewan Hospital, she began co-ordinating volunteers for the then health district. When the Prairie North Health Region was created, the larger area came under her watch as well.

"How fortunate for me to have such a career in volunteer management," says Kingwell.

At one time it was a matter of writing your name on a recipe card in a box and pitching in, but things have become more formalized and, indeed, the field of volunteer management has become a recognized profession. Kingwell is certified with the Canadian Administrators of Volunteer Resources.

But for all its administrative advances, volunteer management is still about the people who volunteer.

Kingwell and the present co-ordinator of volunteer services with the home care program, Denise Schmidt, share an obvious pride in what volunteers bring to health care in the region. Despite knowing the ins and outs of volunteer resources, theirs is almost a sense of wonder at what, individually and collectively, their volunteers do.

Meals on Wheels is one of the best-known volunteer programs, falling under the umbrella of home care.

"It's huge," says Schmidt, who holds a certificate in volunteer management

There are five routes in North Battleford, two in Battleford and one in Cut Knife, with noon meals delivered Monday to Friday to clients.

Meals on Wheels helps keep people in their homes by providing a nutritious hot meal and community contact to people who are often socially isolated. Often, says Schmidt, the volunteers are also extra eyes and ears for home care nurses, reporting any circumstances that require investigation, such as a client who has fallen, or who isn't answering their door or telephone.

This is program that "has to be done," says Schmidt with passion. "I have to have volunteers."

And she's not afraid to recruit wherever and whenever possible. There's no room for letting any clients down.

"The clients are so appreciative, especially when our volunteers have to deliver those meals when it's minus 40 in the snow!"

From amongst churches, businesses such as car dealership and real estate agencies, services organizations and individuals, there must be 300 volunteers taking part, says Schmidt.

No definitive number? That's because volunteers are something of an immeasurable resource, say Schmidt and Kingwell.

"It's always been hard to quantitatively measure the volunteers," says Kingwell.

One may be able to count volunteers within one program, but many times one individual may be a member of a hospital greeter program, deliver Meals on Wheels for home care, entertain at River Heights Lodge, belong to the Battlefords District Care Centre Auxiliary and so on.

In the Meals on Wheels program, whole businesses and organizations often sign up to volunteer, and while those volunteer acts are counted, the number of individuals represented is something of a moving target. But it's a hefty number

At Battlefords Union Hospital alone, there are at least 40 greeters who cover shifts from 8 a.m. to noon and from noon to 4 p.m. daily, plus five unit volunteers daily from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Student volunteers help out on the units from 4 to 6 p.m. and there are also spiritual services volunteers visiting on behalf of the churches.

The greeters in the foyer of Battlefords Union Hospital provide patient information, says Kingwell, but they are also there for people coming in with illness or age or changes in their life, taking them to the appropriate areas and helping them find their way. They might assist people from long-term care who have arrived on the Handibus, take them to their treatment area and see them back on the bus. All these activities have the added value of freeing up staff to do the jobs they are paid to do.

The greeter program is 10 years old and there are "charter" greeters still showing up for their shifts.

"I've actually had people waiting to get on to the greeter program, because people just hold their place," says Kingwell. "I've had people hold their spot for five or six years it's quite amazing."

And she has stories.

"I've got some greeters stories. Talk about accommodating people giving them a ride across the street in a wheelchair?" she laughs.

And when a baby goes home, says Kingwell, they are eager to help, pushing the wheelchair or carrying bags or flowers.

"They love it when a baby comes down."

On the units, there are more volunteers. They visit at bedsides, help at discharge or admitting, and provide a listening ear.

Maybe somebody in hospital is anxious and wants to talk about their worries, or doesn't fully understand their treatment, says Kingwell. A unit volunteer can talk with them, perhaps helping with a questionnaire or form, reducing the patient's stress.

"The nurse might not have time to sit and visit to find out if the patient is anxious about something. [With unit volunteers] that can be taken care of easily, even questions like who's looking after the dog. We've had questions like that."

Palliative care volunteers also help reduce stress and provide comfort and care at the most difficult of times. They may be called upon to help at the bedside of a hospital palliative care room, or at a long term care facility, or even a patient's home if they've chosen to pass there.

"All our volunteers are specifically trained, they are registered, they have criminal record checks done, they are trained in palliative care and are able to do vigil sitting to help the family through that time."

Most palliative care programs don't provide vigil sitting, but it's always been an identified need and it is part of Prairie North's program, says Kingwell. The family may want someone with their loved one all the time if it's not possible for them to attend.

Spiritual services for patients is also part of the volunteer program and is supported through local churches. Although there is no paid chaplain's position, says Kingwell, they have a chaplain on call list.

"We have all their numbers so there is that support even if they need to come in at two in the morning."

Volunteer and spiritual services also provides in-services for visitation volunteers, tours and support, as well as identification and special vests so nurses know who they are and can pass pertinent information on to them.

But it doesn't stop there. In the community, more volunteers are active.

In addition to home care volunteers, there are young parent mentors and adopt a grandparent volunteers.

There are also volunteers trained to facilitate living well with chronic conditions presentations. You couldn't have a paid person stand up and deliver the script with the same impact as a peer, says Kingwell. The facilitators go through four days training by Kingwell or Schmidt, who had their training through the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif., and after having delivered a session they can become peer leaders.

Wellness clinics also rely on volunteers to direct clients attending to have their blood pressure measured, and get their fingernails and toenails done, says Schmidt.

"All those things are preventive."

They are aimed at reducing emergency visits and at keeping people in their homes, plus providing them with the social contact that is part of the goal of holistic care.

"Volunteers are there, whether in a mentoring role, visiting or helping with different duties. There it starts."

Is it possible to measure the impact of volunteers?

"They are a valuable important human resource," says Kingwell, adding, "It's tough to measure when that is translated into dollars and cents."

In addition to the hours of actual volunteer delivery time that is recorded, there is also the time people take out of their day to get ready and even to get to their volunteer programs.

"When you stop and put that into a minimum wage, and factor out the hundreds of thousands of dollars that that would add up to " Kingwell can't even hazard a guess.

"Volunteers don't do the job of paid staff, they enhance the job," she says. "We couldn't hire someone to come and visit for an hour and to see if anybody needs help with any particular thing."

That's a job only a volunteer is willing to take on.

"If you put an ad in the paper to come and drive for an hour once a day, take your own vehicle, in all kinds of weather, you wouldn't get a person applying for it," says Kingwell. "But volunteers go out and do it."

It might be said they "go out and do it" when a paid person might not.

Kingwell remembers going to work during a huge storm.

"I arrived at the hospital windblown, thinking 'my gosh what did I just drive through?' and there are the greeters."

That's why she and Schmidt put emphasis on thanking their volunteers in ways like tonight's appreciation event.

"Not only do they inspire others, they also motivate each other. That's why it's important we all come together once a year in a community-wide recognition of volunteerism."