Hospice Care A Special Privilege For Volunteer

By Nancy K. Crevier

This article continues a series of brief profiles of local individuals who volunteer with Regional Hospice and Home Care of Western Connecticut.

Ginny Morris of Newtown knew when she retired from her medical laboratory business that she wanted to volunteer. “I wanted to be where I would be doing something of value and being with people,” said Ms Morris. She has found her niche, she believes, as a family support volunteer with Regional Hospice and Home Care of Western Connecticut, where she has served for three years.

Following up on an article she read, Ms Morris underwent training as a hospice volunteer. “I was so impressed with the training program, and how organized Hospice is,” said Ms Morris. “They really prepare you to do this,” she added.

“I think that a lot of people are afraid of the prospect of spending time with the dying. They think it will be depressing, or scary, or uncomfortable,” she said. However, she has found her experience to be inspirational and very rewarding.

What volunteers such as herself do, she said, is provide compassion and simple caring acts for patients in terminal care, as well as for the caregivers, in the home setting. “We give respite to those who are caring for a dying loved one; 24/7 care is a big job,” she said.

Regional Hospice provides nurses, physicians, home health care workers, social workers, and “the whole gamut of support of what families need at this time,” Ms Morris said. The family support volunteer adds to the emotional support system.

Family support volunteers do not provide medical or hygiene care. “We give caregivers a chance to go out and shop, or get their nails done, or just go to another part of the house and rest. I might do some shopping for the caregiver, or make a cup of tea. If the patient is alert, I might watch television or read to him or her, or fluff a pillow. Sometimes I just sit quietly, and it is enough. If the patient wakes up, there is someone friendly there, to calm the patient, or cheer him or her up. Some like to go through the family albums with me, and that is something that would not happen in a hospital,” said Ms Morris. Each week, she visits one or two patients, for three or four hours.

The patients and families that Ms Morris has had the pleasure to know are grateful to have help in the form of a simple presence, she said. In the process of doing that, she said, she feels she becomes a friend to the patient and family.

There is a misconception that hospice care is just for cancer patients, but that is not so. “We have patients with many kinds of terminal illnesses,” said Ms Morris. “I’ve had a 100-year-old woman telling me how it was in Nazi Germany, and her favorite recipe for rice pudding. I’ve played dominoes with a man with Alzheimer’s. I’ve had some amazing experiences,” she said.

When a patient dies, it is bittersweet, admitted Ms Morris. “It’s sad, but what I focus on is that these patients, instead of being in a hospital, were able to be in their homes. They could have their dogs sitting on their beds, smell the cooking, and see their families. It is so much nicer. To me,” she said, “it is a wonderful gift to give someone, to allow them to die at home. If you are dying, I can’t think of any better way to go into death than with hospice care, for the families or for the patient.”

What continues to amaze Ms Morris with each and every new situation is the amount of love and caring families give to their dying one.

“To be able to see this, is a privilege,” she said.

To find out about becoming a hospice volunteer, visit regionalhospicect.org, or contact Carolyn Wolfe, volunteer director, at 203-702-7415 or e-mail CWolfe@RegionalHospiceCT.org.