Being seriously ill can cause anxiety and stress, and can be lonely too. For patients who would like some help or company, our Home Support service can help. The service pairs patients with volunteers, who visit them at home once a week, for up to three hours. They may take them out shopping, go for a walk together, drive them to a local garden centre or café, or simply sit and have a chat with them over a cup of tea. These volunteers can make a real difference to a patient’s life, providing practical and emotional support and companionship at a difficult time. Their help also means that the patient’s carer can have a few hours to themselves, knowing that their loved one is safe and being looked after.
Brian lives at home with his wife Maggie, and is visited once a week by Peter, one of our Home Support volunteers. Brian relies on Peter to take him grocery shopping, and sometimes they go for a cup of tea at a local garden centre, too.
“The great thing when Peter comes is the fact that he takes us out,” said Brian. "Sometimes Maggie comes as well, when she feels well enough. She's a bit ill I’m afraid, and therefore she can only go out occasionally. We go to places like the garden centre, and that's wonderful to see. Because we are of the old world, we're not online, and that means we can’t do things like ordering stuff. We've got some friends who do that sort of thing for us, and they do bring stuff in, but it's nice to just go around the shops and see things. And Peter's so useful because he is so good at packing, he’s so quick. I’ve never seen anything like it in all my life! He's a joy to shop with.”
“I've been volunteering for Phyllis Tuckwell for about two or three years now,” said Peter. “I visit Brian for two hours, and it's either once a week or once a fortnight, depending on what I've got on and what Brian and Maggie have got on. We arrange the next one before we depart, we just synchronise diaries and see when we've got a time we're both free. Everyone's got a couple of hours free in the week, and it doesn’t have to be a particular time, it can be morning or afternoon, so it's very easy, really.”
“It was great when we went to the garden centre,” smiled Brian. “Just to sit there for a cup of tea and a general chat. Maggie came with us too. It's good to talk to Peter because he understands the world we’re talking about. I’m 87 now, and young people are not interested in the same things as we are. I know Peter's not my vast age, but at least he's getting towards it to know what we can discuss.”
Peter is a retired solicitor and enjoys volunteering in our Home Support team.
“I like helping people,” he said, "and it's an easy way of helping people who've got a problem or need a bit of assistance with something. Some people you visit just want someone to chat to, to have a cup of tea and some company. Others need help filling in forms, and with others it's just taking them shopping because they can't get to the shops, that sort of thing. It's just whatever is needed. Everyone needs a bit of help now and again, don't they? And probably the older you get, or if you've got medical complaint, you need help more than others. We should all help each other, really.”
Our Home Support volunteers are of all ages; some organise their volunteering around their work or family commitments, others are retired or work part-time. They support patients of all ages too, some of whom have young families, others who are older, like Brian. We provide all the initial training and ongoing support that they need, including monthly meetings where they can chat with other volunteers to review and share their learning.
“You don't have to have any special skills to be a Home Support volunteer, because Phyllis Tuckwell train you,” said Peter. “They have lots of volunteers doing numerous different jobs, and they're very good at training; they really are excellent. They won’t throw you in at the deep end. You train as a group, so it's all quite fun, and there's no tests or anything; you just accumulate a lot of information on what you need for the job. You don't have to have any prior knowledge, just be a caring human being, that's enough. That's what makes the world go round, isn't it?”
