A new first-of-its-kind volunteer program has started at Cariboo Memorial Hospital in Williams Lake.
“The hospital has had volunteer programs in the past like Candy Stripers, but nothing to this extent, like at the other hospitals in the region,” says CMH’s new Volunteer Coordinator Tanis Rosa.
“The volunteers will come in and just spend time with patients through visiting, just to help the patients pass the time,” says Rosa on the program. “I feel nobody goes to the hospital for a ‘good’ reason. So, if a volunteer can go and brighten somebody’s day, that’s our goal.”
Volunteers will be participating in comforting hospital visitors with a range of activities to choose from in this new program. Playing cards, reading, completing puzzles, and the occasional walk are possibilities.
Rosa says volunteers have the freedom to choose the activities and level of participation they are comfortable giving.
“We want them to be there and to use their skill sets to our advantage,” says Rosa. “We accept students 15 years or older, the hope is to have even 20, 30, 40-year-olds coming into the hospital, volunteering and spending time in different departments of the hospital.”
The program will work with the school district to give high school students the necessary volunteer hours, as well as job shadowing opportunities for any interested in pursuing a career in health care.
Rosa has spent her entire life volunteering in the clubs and associations her children have been involved with, to her taking on this role is “a natural part of [her] life.”
“I like giving back to my community. Ever since I was in high school, I have volunteered,” says Rosa, who moonlights as a volunteer for the Williams Lake Minor Hockey Association.
The new volunteer program started in late November with its first volunteer spending time with patients in Deni House.
“The staff and patients were super happy to see her hanging out with the residents in her uniform,” says Rosa. “There was lots of positive feedback from those asking about new opportunities to give back in our hospital.”
For more information or wanting to get involved in the volunteer program, look up the opportunities at InteriorHealth.ca.
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