Our latest Volunteer Workshop on Wednesday focused mainly on the logistics of re-commencing face-to-face groups at the Val Waterhouse Centre. Unfortunately, our plans to re-commence groups in October have been scuppered by facilities issues, so our final Falls and PR groups of the year will now be done remotely.
However, we are planning to do face-to-face pre-assessments, one-to one rehab and some Rehab Plus sessions before Christmas. We will also be doing run-throughs, prior to starting groups in the New Year, which will involve our volunteers playing the patient role and testing out how well the measures we put in place work. In addition we will be creating booklets and videos, which will make it easy for our patients to understand what they can expect of us and what we will expect of them.
The staff have already had several meetings about how face-to-face might work in our new COVID-affected world, but who better to get the patient perspective from than our volunteers? We talked about all things PPE, vaccinations, risk assessments, ventilation, UV filters and air sterilisers, Long COVID, technology, education, transport issues and the safety measures we will have in place to ensure that we keep patients, volunteers and staff safe. Our volunteers will continue to play a vital role in reassuring patients, reinforcing educational messages, being the amazing role models that they have always been and telling us if they think we could be doing things better.
Pam Hancock, Respiratory Lead commented,
“I just want to say what a good meeting this was. I am reassured in our way of working when we have these meetings and talk through things and come up with great ideas about how things should work practically. No matter how much thought the staff had put into this before, I am pleased we came up with some good things today through consulting with our volunteers, as we have done since our Hope Specialist Service was first created. I hope that all involved see not just the value in meetings like this, but the practical changes and evolution of the service, which grows from these meetings.”