Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice has a growing need for hospice volunteers in the Lakes Region. Volunteers are critical members of the AHCH hospice team offering needed support for patients at the end of life and their families.

A five-week training class is scheduled at Bridgton Hospital. Classes will begin on March 26 and run through April 23 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 4 p.m.

As part of the 27-hour class participants will discover the world of hospice through discussion, guest speakers, and skill-strengthening activities. The course explores a range of topics including hospice philosophy, pain management, communication, spirituality, grief and bereavement, and the role of hospice volunteers.

Nancy Greene, Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice Volunteer Coordinator, explains, “The AHCH hospice program cares for patients in their homes, as well as long-term care facilities, and, at the hospice house in Auburn. A volunteer may start visiting a patient in their home and continue to visit with the patient if they move to the hospice house or a long-term care facility. Volunteers can build wonderful relationships very quickly with patients and their families. That relationship can continue wherever the patient may be.”

When hospice volunteers are matched with patients in or near their communities, they visit regularly and may stay with the patient for several hours while a caregiver gets time away from the home. They may also do errands if requested, or meet other special needs. “Sometimes the need is for someone to just be present, to sit quietly, and simply ‘be’ with the patient,” says Greene.

To be a hospice volunteer, a person needs to be nonjudgmental, warm, compassionate, and a good listener. A volunteer must also respect confidentiality and be able to provide his or her own transportation.

Participants are asked to make a commitment of volunteering three to four hours per week for a year with AHCH. All prospective volunteers are interviewed before acceptance into the program. For more information, call and ask for volunteer services at 1-800-482-7412 or 777-7740.

AHCH is a nonprofit Medicare-certified agency that annually provides comprehensive hospice care to more than 1,100 residents of central and western Maine. AHCH specializes in hospice care for residents of long-term-care facilities, as well as those living in their own homes. In November 2005, AHCH opened a new 14-bed Hospice House in Auburn, Maine, designed to meet the end-of-life care needs for patients who can no longer be cared for at home. For more information on AHCH, visit our website at www.AHCH.org.