Hours expected: Weekly (4 hours minimum if possible
What is the role?
East Cheshire Hospice is our purpose-built in- patient, outpatient and day facility, dedicated to improving the quality of life for patients living with a life limiting illness, their families and their carers. The Hospice provides a wide range of treatments and advice, support groups, practical help and information tailored to each individual’s specific needs, wishes and circumstances. Most important of all, the Hospice staff are able to lend a listening ear and many years of experience to make living with a progressive illness easier and less isolating for the whole family.
The Hospice needs a willing volunteer to work in our Family and Therapies Support Team as a Complementary Therapist. This role requires you to provide complementary therapies within a safe environment to support patients and family members affected by cancer or life-limiting illness.
What will I be doing?
· You will provide support for people adjusting after someone has died or received a life-limiting diagnosis
· Your focus will be on the patient or carer, determining their suitability for the chosen therapy, and assessing whether their condition has changed since their last therapy
· It’s important that you respect the need for confidentiality when you have access to restricted Hospice information
· You’ll be expected to keep the therapy areas clean and tidy at all times
· You’ll be liaising with a multi-professional team regarding patient issues, and you’ll be expected to participate in any evaluation of the service
· You will keep appropriate records on the Hospice database, and you’ll stay up to date with current practice and professional conduct
· You’ll take direction from the Therapies Manager, and work within the framework of the Hospice in its provision of specialist and palliative care, ensuring that its aims and objectives are met.
What experience or skills might I need?
We need somebody who is professionally qualified and experienced in Complementary therapy. It would be useful, but not essential for you to have previous experience of working in a health care setting, but it’s far more important for us to have somebody who is an excellent team worker with great interpersonal skills. You will need to be a good organiser, and have strong administration skills. We need a volunteer who is good at communicating, willing to undertake delegated duties, but able to work independently and on their own initiative where required.
Behaviours
You should be someone who has a positive and energetic can-do attitude, and a friendly and approachable personality. We’d like you to be an excellent team worker with a flexible and supportive attitude to colleagues. For us, it’s essential that you show a lot a huge amount of empathy and respect towards our patients. We want volunteers who are very sincere in their attitude, and show integrity in their dealings with others. You will need to be very competent and capable of deploying the necessary skills and knowledge, but also have enough humility to be able to acknowledge your own strengths and weaknesses. Above all, you should be able to show wisdom and sound judgement. Towards your clients, you will explain and agree confidentiality, and maintain boundaries where necessary. You’ll find culturally appropriate ways of communicating in a courteous and clear way, and recognise your own limits and where it’s necessary to refer on. You’ll arrange with the client an agreed method of working and time limited sessions.
Other
Our volunteers should be reliable and dependable, and be able to commit to the agreed number of hours per month. You’ll be expected to comply with the East Cheshire Hospice Complementary Therapy Policy, as well as your own affiliated organisation’s Code of Ethics. You should be available to attend quarterly volunteer therapy meetings, and provide information about your sessions to the Family and Therapy Support Manager for their statistics and data collection. And we would really love you to be passionate about the Hospice and our ethos, and to raise positive awareness of the Hospice within the community
How might this benefit me?
You will be contributing to an important area of work which helps to improve the lives of people in our local community. You’ll meet new people and have the chance to develop new and existing skills. And did you know that volunteering is thought to have a positive impact on your health?
What do I do next?
Please go to www.echospice.org.uk/volunteer for more information, and to apply online – or call the volunteering team on 01625 610364