Celebrating the Gifts of Hospice Volunteers
Pointe Coupee Hospice Honors its Volunteers during National Volunteer Week, April 18-24
National Volunteer Week provides the opportunity to recognize the millions of Americans who provide volunteer service in communities across the country. At Pointe Coupee Hospice, eight trained volunteers give selflessly to help people live as fully as possible, even when facing serious or life-limiting illness. Even now, when our volunteers can’t visit patients and their families in the home as they used to before the pandemic, they are making a difference by quilting blankets to keep our patient’s warm, making fidget mats to help provide sensory stimulation as well as fine motor skills for people living with dementia, calling families, creating caregiver support boxes, and much more. We look forward to our volunteers being able to make home visits again, and we continue to train them in infection prevention techniques to protect both them and our patients. We are happy to add that our volunteers are fully vaccinated and are excited to reconnect with their assigned families.
“Given that hospice volunteers accompany people along the journey of serious or life-threatening illness, they serve an essential part in enabling Pointe Coupee Hospice to offer the best care possible. By sharing their time, energy, and expertise, our volunteers bring compassion and caring to the lives of those in need and we celebrate them not only during National Volunteer Week but every day,” said Jeanine Thibodeaux, administrator of Pointe Coupee Homebound Health and Hospice.
It is federally mandated under Medicare that five percent of all patient care hours be provided by trained volunteers, reflecting the vital role that volunteers play in the provision of care. But even if the integration of volunteers was not required, we would still consider them critical members of our team. Our community is a better, more compassionate place because of their service.
For those interested in learning more about hospice volunteer opportunities, please visit pchhh.org.
Contact:
Blanche Jewell
Volunteer Coordinator at PCHHH
225-638-5717