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One of the largest volunteer organisations in the district is the Warkworth Wellsford Hospice.
The community-based service provides care and support for terminally ill patients and their families at home throughout north Rodney.
It employs six palliative care nurses, a trained psychotherapist and a social worker, as well as administrative and management staff. But alongside that small team are more than 350 volunteers.
Manager Kathryn Ashworth says the contribution of volunteers is priceless.
“From volunteers working directly with patients and families, through to volunteers raising money to support the service, we literally could not manage without them,” she says. “As one example, our retail operations bring in more than half the money we need each year to keep the service free of charge to those who need it.”
Fundraising for hospice takes many forms.
At the shops, goods have to be sorted and sold, and many of the volunteers sew and knit garments, and make home preserves to sell.
The garage sale involves sorting, van driving, delivery and pickups, setting up, selling and packing, and the catering team bakes, prepares and presents for a range of events, from funerals to birthday parties.
There is also an events team that works on fundraisers such as the annual art exhibition, PYO strawberries, home tours and the Coastal Challenge. Fundraising volunteers help by staffing stalls at events and cutting un-saleable cotton clothing into rags for sale to local trades.
Family support volunteers fulfil a different role. They provide companionship for patients, so their carer, often the spouse, can have some time out. They also help patients tell their life story, which hospice publishes as a soft booklet with photos. Support is also given to patients to write letters, put together photo albums or scrapbooks, or whatever is a meaningful legacy for the patients and their families.
Support volunteers also help by taking patients to hospital or other appointments, and shopping or outings, as well as doing gardening and other household tasks.
In the office, volunteers support administration and clinical teams with database entries, answering phones and cleaning equipment. Gardening, mowing lawns and maintaining vehicles at Hospice House is also done by volunteers.
Many of the volunteers have been with hospice for more than 10 years.
At a governance level, volunteers sit on the Local Advisory Board and represent Warkworth Wellsford Hospice on the North Shore Hospice Trust.
The current building project, Tui House, has also drawn in volunteers to help plan and deliver the project.
Hospice also benefits from the many volunteer hours contributed by staff, over and above their paid hours.
“It is a kind of an unwritten rule when you work for hospice,” Kathryn says. “It comes under ‘and any other role required’ in the job description.”
Can you help?
Hospice is always looking for more van drivers and will have more volunteer roles to fill when it moves to Tui House. These will include hosts/hostesses to greet visitors, bakers, and assistants for patient groups and clinics – all volunteers will be given special training for these roles. To find out more, visit warkworthwellsfordhospice.co.nz or phone 425 9535.
