Report: Volunteering in UK Hospices

“Volunteering is crucial to the hospice movement in the UK. Volunteers are engaged in a wide variety of roles, including administration, providing diversionary activities for day-care patients, providing bereavement support and complementary therapies, running support groups for carers, driving patients to day-care and hospital appointments and providing listening and befriending skills to patients and carers in their own homes. The trustees of independent, charitable hospices also represent a distinct group of volunteers. Volunteers bring something unique and distinctive to the hospice movement – a sense of community and fellowship, at a difficult and vulnerable time in people’s lives, and a special mix of skills and experiences. They also make a significant economic contribution”