Boundary Trails Health Centre is looking for caring individuals to get involved as volunteers with its Palliative Care program.
The program, which is funded by community donations to the BTHC Foundation, provides end-of-life care to patients and their families in a special ward at the Morden-Winkler hospital.
The volunteers are truly the cornerstones of the program, says volunteer coordinator Jerri-Ann Froese.
“Too often, we find ourselves underestimating the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, or the smallest act of caring …”
“They are an integral part of the team,” she says, explaining that team includes herself, two palliative care nurses, and the spiritual care coordinator. “The volunteers bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience that they can use to provide compassionate care to the patients and their families.”
Volunteers work as friendly visitors on the palliative care ward, act as an extra pair of hands in the cancer care unit, assist with mealtimes, bring the comfort cart with coffee and food around to families, and do visitations with patients receiving palliative care at home.
“The time commitment is very individual, depending on what area a volunteer wants to be involved with,” Froese says.
Morden’s Bonnie Gerbrandt has been a palliative/cancer care volunteer for over 20 years.
“When Boundary Trails was built, I was owning/operating a successful retail business with my husband,” she shares. “I loved my life working together, but found myself looking for some way to fill the role of giving back.”
She took the palliative care education course offered by BTHC to prospective volunteers and then got right to work.
“It’s quite possibly one of my best decisions ever,” Gerbrandt says, explaining that her role as volunteer most often is to simple be there for people, especially during times when their loved ones cannot (be it because the live far away or simply need a short break from the hospital).
“Families are so thankful when they can rest easy knowing a volunteer is present with their loved one,” she says.
Gerbrandt has had the honour of walking alongside countless patients and their families over the past two decades.
“Too often, we find ourselves underestimating the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to make someone’s journey a bit more bearable,” she says.
The role can come with challenges—being with people in their final days can certainly be difficult—but knowing she’s making a difference makes it all worth it.
“Being a volunteer in palliative situations means I will experience sorrow and grief, but it also means that I will feel incredibly blessed by the friendships made along the way,” Gerbrandt says, noting she relies on her training and the community of volunteers and hospital staff to get through the especially difficult cases.
Gerbrandt urges anyone considering this volunteer opportunity to take the leap.
“Know that if you have a heart of compassion, this could be one of your best decisions as well,” she says.
The next BTHC palliative care training course for volunteers takes place Monday, Oct. 16 and Monday, Oct. 23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Christian Life Centre in Morden. This course is required for all volunteers, unless you have had similar training at another hospital palliative care program.
Anyone interested in registering to take part should contact Froese as soon as possible by calling 204-331-8815 or emailing jefroese@southernhealth.ca
Palliative care’s history in Morden-Winkler
Palliative care in Morden-Winkler got its start in 1991 with Anne Goertzen, who started up an end-of-life care program at the Bethel Hospital in Winkler.
“She felt that the palliative care program had a single goal to achieve, in the remaining time left to a patient suffering from a terminal illness, a quality of life and easement of pain and emotional distress by providing social, emotional, and physical supports,” shares program volunteer coordinator Jerri-Ann Froese.
A similar program was begun at Morden Hospital a few years later, in 1995, by Thelma Alexander. The two programs merged when BTHC opened in 2001.
The program today is funded by the BTHC Foundation through community donations. In addition to funding the nursing staff, the foundation has also funded the furnishing of nine palliative care rooms at BTHC which allow extra comforts for patients and their families, including small kitchenettes and pull-out sleeper chairs for family members to use.
“This program has been providing care to patients and families for 36 years,” Froese says. “We are very thankful that BTHC Foundation supports the program.”
—Ashleigh Viveiros
