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, if someone wants to help with respite care, meaning giving the caregiver time off, that volunteer will take additional classes in direct patient care.
‘The ‘basic’ training requires a study course which is provided on two educational DVDs (about six hours) on hospice related topics. Volunteers may watch these in the comfort of their own home or in the Harbor Hospice Office. Following this, a one-day in-office training is required for the core volunteer program. These trainings are offered quarterly in Muskegon, Oceana and Mason Counties. If you are interested in becoming a Harbor Hospice volunteer, please call and ask to speak with Volunteer Services. Following completion of the core volunteer training, there are special training sessions throughout the year for volunteers wishing to perform services with more specialized requirements.
There are also additional Volunteer Programs that bring specialized help to our patients and their families. They include the following:
The Watchman Program™ is a faith-based effort that identifies volunteer leaders within congregations to promote awareness about end of life care services to the members of their church family. Watchmen have the very special role of working directly with their pastors and church leadership to provide them with the most current end of life and grief support information available and then to help carry the word to members of their church family 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 as “simply being present to the patient and family in their time of need.”
Grief Support Volunteers operate in many important areas within the Harbor Hospice organization. As facilitators, 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. Grief support volunteers also help at Camp Courage, a grief camp for children 6-12 who have lost a loved one. The support they provide is integral in helping children understand how to grieve in healthy ways.
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.
Spiritual Care Volunteers offer safe and supportive services to patients and their families during the end of life journey. Spiritual Care volunteers are available for prayer, exploration of each persons unique approach to life and death, and to help find meaning, inspiration, courage and hope during this experience.
Hospets 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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