PATIENT CARE AND BEREAVEMENT VOLUNTEERS

Patient care and bereavement volunteers are the core of hospice. These volunteers are caring, compassionate, experienced people who want to give back to their community in a very special way.

All Camarillo Hospice patient care and bereavement vounteers are professionally screened, and must complete an intensive basic training course. This training provides great insight into the human life experience, including dying and death, and prepares the volunteer to bring the highest standards and most intuitive assistance to his or her work.

Once screened, trained and enrolled, the patient care volunteer is "matched" with and introduced to a patient and his or her family by our Director of Volunteer Services. The volunteer then begins a personal relationship with the patient and family, and a schedule of assistance is set by mutual agreement. The relationship that develops between the volunteer and the patient and family is one of friendship and respect focused upon practical and emotional support and reduced stress.

Throughout the assignment, the Director of Volunteer Services remains in regular contact with both the volunteer and the patient and family to ensure success.

Bereavement volunteers complete an additional 7 hours of training and act as support group facilitators and peer counselors. They are supervised by the Director of Counseling Services.