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You're Thinking About Becoming a Hospice Volunteer

Thank you for your interest in our Hospice Volunteer Program. Volunteers are essential to Home Health & Hospice Care (HHHC) in providing the best possible care to the patients and families we serve. We are very fortunate to have many great volunteers come to us through word of mouth, or as a result of their own personal experiences. Whatever your reason for considering this volunteer opportunity, we look forward to exploring it with you and seeing if it's a good match.

A Variety of Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteers support HHHC in three main areas:

  • Committee & Fundraising Volunteers - These volunteers support the annual events that raise money to support the agency, including our Golf Tournament, Wine Dinner, and Fashion Show/Champagne Brunch. No special training or orientation required.
  • Support Volunteers - These volunteers most often provide administrative support in our office (in Merrimack). Other support volunteers drive homecare clients to medical appointments, or assist with special projects such as sewing johnnies for Hospice House patients. The orientation for these volunteers is customized to the volunteer assignment.
  • Patient Care Volunteers - These volunteers work directly with patients and families. Patient Care volunteers visit in a variety of settings, including patients homes, nursing home or assisted living facilities, hospitals, and the Community Hospice House. Patient Care Volunteers are required to complete the 33-hour Hospice Training Course (offered in Spring & Fall) before they begin working with patients and families.

    • What Do Patient Care Volunteers Do for HHHC?
    Patient Care volunteers might do any of the following:

  • Make friendly visits
  • Provide respite so that a caregiver can get out to take a break
  • Assist with shopping and errands
  • Perform light housekeeping or assist with meal preparation
  • Facilitate life review, reminiscing with patients in conversation, or assisting them in recording stories (audio or video) or scrapbooking with photos
  • Drive patients or assist a family member to visit a patient who is in a facility
  • Provide Therapeutic Pet visits, most often with dogs or cats
  • Offer Reiki or Massage
  • Share Therapeutic Art activities
  • Offer Music at the Bedside
  • Sing with our Wellspring Hospice Chorus
  • Sit vigil to provide presence for patients who are actively dying
  • Co-facilitate bereavements groups for adults or children
  • Provide one-on-one bereavement support through phone calls or visits

    • About Hospice Training
    HHHC's Hospice Training is a total of 33 hours. It is open to HHHC employees, prospective volunteers, and community participants. The course is free for those who are planning to volunteer. There is a fee of $150 for those in the community who are taking it for personal or professional development.

    If you are taking the training to volunteer, you must attend all sessions to become an active Patient Care Volunteer. (One missed session may be made up at a later date.) We take pride in preparing you for your volunteer experience and ensuring that our patients and families receive the finest service possible. In most cases, you will not begin your volunteering until the training is completed. Training sessions are held in our main office at 7 Executive Park Drive in Merrimack.

    Training Schedule
    Training is offered twice a year, in Spring and Fall. We try to make it accessible to individuals with a variety of schedules, so it is offered daytimes in the Spring (typically Thursday mornings 9 am - noon) and evenings in the Fall (typically Wednesday evenings 6-9 pm). An intensive 2-week Summer Training is held when the level of interest warrants it.

    Spring 2012 Training dates: The Spring Hospice Training session will begin on Thursday, March 1st from 9 a.m. – noon, and continue weekly through Thursday, May 10th.

    Intensive Training Opportunity: - Summer 2012 - TBC: A special Summer Intensive Training course is sometimes offered to accommodate teachers, college students and others who wish to volunteer and for whom the regular courses are not a good fit. If there is sufficient interest, the Summer intensive training program will be over a 2-week period in July. Participants will meet from 12:30 – 5:00 pm daily on July 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25 and 26. If you are interested in this session, please notify us as it will only be held if we have enough participants registered.

    Fall 2012 Training dates: The Fall Hospice Training session will begin on Wednesday, September 26th from 6 – 9 pm, and continue weekly through Wednesday, November 28th. We will not meet the week of Thanksgiving. In addition, we will hold one Saturday session at the beginning of the training on September 29th from 9 am – 3 pm. (This allows us to condense the training so that it doesn't go too far into the holiday season.)

    If you are interested in any of these sessions, please download the volunteer application to print and complete, then contact tanya.prather@hhhc.org to set up an interview.

    Volunteer Requirements
    Hospice volunteers are required to maintain a volunteer file that is updated annually. This is a regulatory requirement for our agency to be in compliance with the Medicare Hospice Benefit. Because Medicare views volunteers as "unpaid employees", a volunteer file essentially mirrors a personnel file.

    If you become a volunteer with HHHC, your file will be required to contain the following items:

  • Original Application
  • Training Certificate
  • Reference Forms
  • Copy of Current Driver's License
  • Copy of Auto Insurance (documenting expiration date & liability coverage)
  • Health Form (completed by Primary Care physician)
  • TB Test (2-step - provided by HHHC)
  • Criminal Background Check
  • Motor Vehicle Record Check
  • HIPAA Training Certificate
  • Confidentiality Statement
  • Standards of Conduct
  • Annual Policy Review
  • Sexual Abuse Policy
  • Competencies (Handwashing)