Willingness to Volunteer: An Exploration of the Potential Volunteer Pool for Community Arts Programs

Volunteers are critical for many local arts and culture programs. In contrast to most research, we focus on potential rather than actual volunteers. Using data collected from an online survey of 948 participants, we explore the extent to which individuals are willing to contribute both their time and money to support community arts initiatives. Results from a binary two-stage instrumental variable (IV) probit indicate that a significant predictor of willingness to volunteer is the willingness to pay and the intangible value placed on arts activities and engagement. These findings have implications for recruitment initiatives by public and community arts organizations reliant on volunteer support.

Psychosocial volunteer support for older adults with cognitive impairment: development of MyCare Ageing using a codesign approach via action research

Background and objectivesOlder adults with cognitive impairment are vulnerable to frequent hospital admissions and emergency department presentations. The aim of this study was to use a codesign approach to develop MyCare Ageing, a programme that will train volunteers to provide psychosocial support to older people with dementia and/or delirium in hospital and at home when discharged from hospital.SettingMelbourne, Victoria, Australia.Research designThis study adopts an action research methodology. We report on two co-design workshops with keystakeholders: Workshop 1: identification of components from three existing programmes to inform the development of the MyCare Ageing program logic and, Workshop 2: identification of implementation strategies.ParticipantsThe key stakeholders and workshop participants included clinicians (geriatricians, nurses and allied health), hospital staff (volunteer coordinators and hospital executives), Baptcare staff, a consumer, researchers and implementation experts and project staff.ResultsWorkshop 1 identified the components from three existing programmes—the Volunteer Dementia and Delirium Care programme, Home-Start and MyCare for inclusion in MyCare Ageing. In workshop 2, the p implementation plan was developed taking into consideration hospital-specific processes, training and support needs of volunteers and safety and risk management processes.Discussion and conclusionThe codesign process was successfully applied to develop the MyCare Ageing programme to provide volunteer support to patients with dementia and/or delirium in hospital and their transition home. MyCare Ageing is an innovative programme that meets an identified need from hospitals and consumers to support patients with dementia and/or delirium to improve psychosocial outcomes on discharge from hospital.

Volunteers in palliative care: A healthcare system-wide cross-sectional survey

ObjectiveVolunteers are an important resource in bridging palliative care (PC) services and communities. However, no studies have systematically mapped volunteers’ actual contributions to PC provision and how well they are supported by healthcare services at the volunteer level. Such insights are important to shape and optimise supportive environments for volunteering in PC. This study aimed to describe organised volunteering practices in PC across dedicated PC services and healthcare services providing generalist PC, in terms of tasks, training, supervision and how volunteers evaluate these.MethodsA cross-sectional postal survey of 2273 volunteers from healthcare organisations providing care for people with serious illnesses in the Flemish healthcare system (Belgium) was conducted between June and November 2018. A two-step cluster randomised sample was used. Volunteers were recruited through their respective volunteering organisations.ResultsResponse was obtained for 801 (35.2%) volunteers. Volunteers were predominantly women (75.5%), retired (70.8%) and aged 60–69 years (43.4%). Almost all volunteers provided psychosocial care (96.3%). Volunteers were found to provide either (1) broad volunteer support, emphasising psychosocial and existential care and signposting tasks or (2) narrow volunteer support, emphasising nursing care tasks. Nursing home volunteers had the lowest prevalence of PC training (7.7% vs 53.7% total, p<0.001).ConclusionsMultidimensional support was most prevalent among dedicated PC volunteers, while practical support was most prevalent among sitting service volunteers. Results indicate that volunteers can offer complementary support for patients with serious illnesses, although this requires training and consistent supervision. This is currently suboptimal for volunteers in nursing homes and community home care.

Home-dwelling persons with dementia’s perception on care support: Qualitative study

Background Over the last years, there has been a growth in care solutions aiming to support home-dwelling persons with dementia. Assistive technology and voluntarism have emerged as supplements to traditional homecare and daycare centers. However, patient participation is often lacking in decision-making processes, undermining ethical principles and basic human rights. Research objective This study explores the perceptions of persons with dementia toward assistive technology, volunteer support, homecare services, and daycare centers. Research design A hermeneutical approach was chosen for this study, using a semi-structured interview guide to allow for interviews in the form of open conversations. Participants and research context Twelve home-dwelling persons with dementia participated in the study. The participants were recruited through municipal daycare centers. Ethical considerations Interviews were facilitated within a safe environment, carefully conducted to safeguard the participants’ integrity. The Regional Committee for Medical and Health Research Ethics, Western Norway (Project number 2016/1630) approved the study. Findings The participants shared a well of reflections on experience and attitudes toward the aspects explored. They described assistive technology as possibly beneficial, but pointed to several non-beneficial side effects. Likewise, they were hesitant toward volunteer support, depending on how this might fit their individual preferences. Homecare services were perceived as a necessary means of care, its benefits ascribed to a variety of aspects. Similarly, the participants’ assessments of daycare centers relied on specific aspects, with high individual variety. Discussion and conclusion The study indicates that the margins between whether these specific care interventions were perceived as supportive or infringing may be small and details may have great effect on the persons’ everyday life. This indicates that patient participation in decision-making processes for this group is—in addition to be a judicial and ethical requirement—crucial to ensure adequate care and support.

ПСИХОЛОГІЧНІ ЗАСАДИ ОПТИМІЗАЦІЇ ВОЛОНТЕРСЬКОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ СТУДЕНТСЬКОЇ МОЛОДІ ЗАСОБАМИ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНО-КОМУНІКАЦІЙНИХ ТЕХНОЛОГІЙ

The article analyzes the peculiarities of participation in volunteering activities of socially active students who are ready to be included in the format of cooperation in solving various problems of volunteer support facilities that can demonstrate flexible strategies for interacting with them and actively use their own personal resources to achieve effectiveness in the implementation of such work. The psychological analysis of the content and essence of the phenomenon of student volunteering has been carried out. It is clarified the necessity and peculiarities of the formation of a multidisciplinary team of experienced and young specialists in various fields with the aim of providing comprehensive volunteer assistance, the success of communication of which will be largely determined by the ability to use modern information and communication technologies in the process of volunteer interaction. It has been proven that one of the important factors for ensuring effective and well-coordinated work of a multidisciplinary team is the personal resources of each subject of volunteering activities. It has been established that the subjective resources of students involved in volunteering are determined by their readiness to use information and communication technologies in team collaboration, the search for opportunities and ways to use information and communication technologies to unite team efforts in the process of providing volunteer assistance and developing individual style of volunteering. It was determined that the qualified use of information and communication technologies in volunteering activities of students will help to identify and introduce effective methods, techniques, and means of volunteering, which in the format of active interaction will help not only achieve the goal of volunteer support, but also stimulate the development of personal resources of volunteer students . It is stated that there is a contradiction between the understanding of volunteer students of the importance and possibilities of information and communication technologies for combining team efforts to provide volunteer assistance and the lack of readiness to use them in the practice of volunteering.