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Anne Goossesnen, Jos Somsen, Ros Scott and Leena Pelttari, members of the EAPC Task Force on Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care, have published a paper to “build a common understanding of what hospice and palliative care volunteering is, the common types, contributions and benefits of volunteers in Europe, as well as their motivations, identity and position.”

The EAPC Task Force “all agreed that care-focused volunteering is a relational activity”.

They also found that the presence of volunteers in palliative care are of benefit to paid staff in that “volunteers may have different views than paid medical staff and detect different signals from patients, which they can then pass on to paid staff.”

“For society, hospice and palliative care volunteering is an expression of the caring community; it shows a connection between society and the terminally ill.”

Click here to download the report.