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How To Help
Hospice Volunteers are an essential part of the Harbor Hospice team. Hospice volunteers provide companionship to people living
with a serious illness and help their caregivers in a variety of ways. In the office, volunteer help is used as receptionists, filing clerks,
fund raising, community outreach and other operational areas.
Imagine how helpful it would be to you if someone delivered your medications right to your door; or if someone could stop and visit your loved one when you couldn’t be there; or if someone in your church could tell you about the care that Harbor Hospice could bring to your family member. Harbor Hospice volunteers do all that – and so much more.
All Harbor Hospice volunteers go through a comprehensive training to learn the basics of the agency’s philosophy and practice of care. They learn the many ways that volunteer help is used throughout the organization and they are given the opportunity to choose how they would like to help. Many of those choices will carry extra training requirements. For example, it someone wants to help with respite care, meaning giving the caregiver time off, that volunteer will take additional classes in patient care.
‘The ‘basic’ training is four days and it takes place three or four times each year in both Muskegon and Oceana County locations. If you are interested in becoming a Harbor Hospice volunteer, please call and ask to speak with the Volunteer Coordinator. Following completion of the core volunteer training, there are special training sessions throughout the year for the volunteers.
There are special Volunteer Programs that bring specialized help to our patients and their families. They include the following:
The Watchman Program™ is a faith community-based effort to identify a volunteer leader in a congregation who promotes awareness about hospice care to their church family. Watchmen have the very special role of knowing which supports are available for families and then to help carry the word to them when they are in need.
Vigil Volunteers provide companionship for patients and families as they approach the final hours of life. Many people fear that they will die alone. Vigil Volunteers walk with a patient and family through the dying process, helping them know what to expect, offering comfort through reading, praying, music – whatever they wish. One of the Harbor Hospice Vigil Volunteers describes her job a “simply being there.”
Bereavement volunteers go in many important directions within the Harbor Hospice organization. As counselors, they lead grief support groups. As office support staff, they handle all of the Bereavement mailings. Puppeteers take their show on the road to area schools and present a program about grief where kids learn that it’s OK to feel whatever they are feeling after a loss. The bereavement volunteers help Camp Courage, a grief camp for children 6-14, take place every year.
Office Volunteers are in the office in downtown Muskegon and also at the Poppen Hospice Residence. They are the receptionists who greet our visitors and meet our families. In both locations, they are the face of Harbor Hospice and they are very valuable to the running of the organization.
Hospets, Spiritual Care, and many other programs rely on the help of the more than 150 men and women who serve this agency as volunteers.
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1050 W. Western Ave., Suite 400, Muskegon, MI 49441 | Formerly Hospice of Muskegon-Oceana | |