News

The Snapshot 2022: A review of palliative care volunteering in NSW has now been published and is available to download from our VolunteerHub website.

This research was undertaken by the Palliative Care NSW Volunteer Support Services Programme and is the third in a series of research papers which gather data on palliative care volunteer services in NSW, mapping their extent and activity. This report is noteworthy in that it captures information on the downturn in service as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

43 palliative care volunteer services were included in the research. We found 748 active palliative care volunteers in NSW. This is a 54% decline on numbers from our previous Snapshot survey undertaken in 2018.

211 volunteers were active in hospital or inpatient settings, 249 engaged in community visiting, and 55 volunteers mixed these two roles. There were no volunteers active in residential aged care settings. As many as 233 volunteers were relegated to other roles providing remote or virtual support or engaged in tasks other than in-person social support.

Only 4 palliative care services offer volunteer support exclusively in hospital or inpatient settings. 17 services offer community visiting volunteers only, and 19 services operate in both settings. There are 2 services which do not offer social support but rather provide equipment and fundraise, and 1 service is biography only.

To download and read the full report, please click here.