A Palliative Care Program for Volunteers in a Community Setting: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study.

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care
• Volunteerism
• Community Health

Background:

• Community-based palliative care aims to enhance patient and family quality of life.
• Caregiving responsibility is shared among community members.
• Evidence for the efficacy of volunteer services in palliative care is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of a volunteer program in palliative care.
• To evaluate the efficacy of volunteer services in palliative care.

Main Methods:

• Sequential mixed-methods design.
• 19 volunteers trained; 6 provided 10 weeks of service to 5 families.
• Quantitative (death anxiety, coping, meaning in life) and qualitative (volunteering experiences) data collected.

Main Results:

• Volunteers showed significant increases in coping with death and meaning in life post-training and post-service.
• Qualitative themes: "Volunteer's growing influence at home," "Discovering meaning-in-life through volunteering," and "Death as the final journey in life."
• High caregiver satisfaction scores.

Conclusions:

• Palliative care volunteering provides volunteers with meaning in life, encouraging continued service.
• Caregivers expressed high satisfaction with volunteer-provided palliative care services.