Written by Louise Scott (2017-2018 QDHPCA President)
The Quesnel & District Hospice Palliative Care association is made up of many members, some of whom have chosen to serve as board members. These volunteer board members are active, dedicated persons, who come together once a month for a regular meeting, and at other times for activities to support the hospice & palliative care programs being provided through our association.
This month, the board met on a Saturday to review our past year’s actions and make plans for the next. Our volunteer facilitator Christine Unghy, lead us through a review of what we had done, helped rate the success of each event, and then focus on the priorities and goals for the coming year.
In the end, we made plans on how these ideas will reach fruition. To help us realize what our year would look like, each item was put to the calendar. This was to assure that we were not over-booking ourselves each month.
As volunteers, it’s very important that the word “burnout” does not enter our daily vocabulary. Like with every other non-profit organization, we struggle to attract volunteers and new members.
If people are interested in helping, there are many areas to look at. The first is our direct client care volunteers. These volunteers are there to compliment, and support, what is being provided by the health care staff, the family and friends.
The Palliative Care Volunteers are required to take a training program – the criteria is to guarantee meeting a required provincial standard. We follow education guidelines provided by the BC Hospice Palliative Care Association to which we belong. Once trained, this education qualifies a person to be a client care volunteer and to be covered under our insurance.
If you are looking to volunteer elsewhere with us, maybe consider sharing your time in events such as our Memorial Christmas trees and the Celebrate Life event. Or, spending a bit of time weeding the garden area, or baking goodies in the well-equipped kitchen. As well, we are always looking for volunteers to help with our fundraising activities such as raffle ticket sales, our Gala Hearts for Hospice Evening, and our Hike for Hospice.
Lastly, there is always room at our board table for those who are interested in making decisions to help the organization stay afloat. If you see yourself being available for any of the above activities, email at qdhpca@northernhealth.ca or call us at 250-985-5816.
Your help would be very much appreciated.
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