At La Maison de Tara hospice volunteers are not an 'add on' but are at the very heart of their activities. Without them the hospice could not exist. Volunteer work in the house includes simple patient support (feeding, companionship, changing soiled linen), providing support to families (this is often a big part of what we do) and generally being willing to help out with whatever is required. A volunteer session lasts 5 hours and there are 3 per day: 8–13.00, 12.30–17.30 and 17.00-22.00. The half hour overlap is to give a transmission of what has taken place in the house to the incoming team.
A new (third) training course for English-speaking volunteers will begin in February 2014. It will take place on one Saturday per month over a period of a year (see exact dates below). Volunteers receive over 100 hours of training in basic knowledge, practical knowhow and in 'how to be' with themselves, with residents and their families. Training is given by in-house and external people with deep experience of their subject. After completing the first three days of the course, it is possible to sign up for volunteer sessions in the house as a trainee, in parallel with the formal monthly course.
If you’ve been out of the workplace for a few years or more, you may well be wondering how any potential employer will consider an application from you with such a gaping hole in your CV.
Not only will you be missing essential skills that you would normally have acquired through the process of continuing professional development, but many employers will doubt your ability to be “on the ball”, and respond to work situations with the same speed and efficiency that you did before you embarked on your career break.
Obviously one of the simplest ways of addressing the skill shortage is to enrol on a suitable training course, in your field of work. Getting up to speed with the necessary “technical” skills required for your job, will undoubtedly open up a few more doors – but the big snag here is cost. Since many of these courses are run with professional organizations in mind, they can be very expensive, charging equally “professional” fees. Generally speaking, they don’t take into consideration the needs of applicants who have not had an income for several years.
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