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September 23-24, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
2nd International Conference on
Palliative Care
Clinical Trials and Pharmacovigilance
Joint Event
&
Volunteers are recognized as the third resource for
palliative patients alongside with professional care and
family care. They do not replace them. Volunteers have
their own special place and their specific role in that care.
What can volunteers do for a patient and family? Volunteers
can be with the patient and the family and help in way
they need it. The importance of this "being there" needs to
be revealed. Terminal patients in the last moments of life
feel no pain just because of the nearness of physical death,
but rather the pain of "social death". Mother Theresa also
said that there were no more serious illness in human life
than being "unwanted, unhappy, isolated and left out".
Besides the volunteers who will be directly with the patient
and the family, volunteers who are involved in organizing,
fundraising, promotion and various other roles are also
important. In order to help volunteers to play their role
and to make this assistance sustainable, it is important to
have volunteer organizator (manager) that links all three
care resources (family, professionals and volunteers).
How to attract volunteers? We can do that by developing a
variety of volunteering programs for palliative care that need
to be tailored to the target group (kindergartens, schools,
students, employees, retirees, etc.). Programs should also
be adapted to modern ways of communication. It is not
easy to promote volunteers in palliative care because it is
always associated with death and dying. So when we talk
to the community it is better to send positive messages,
talk personal stories, emphasize values of volunteering.
Speaker Biography
Blazenka Eror Matic obtained her Master's degree at the Faculty of
Economics in Zagreb and has 33 years of working experience in financial
sector. She has long term volunteering experience as a member of the
Secular Franciscan Order (since1996). In palliative care she had been
included as project manager since 2009 when the Mobile Team of
volunteers were organized. Ten-year project management of the Mobile
Team of volunteers in palliative care has contributed to the acquisition
of knowledge and experience on the organization of palliative care in
Croatia and in the world, especially the place and role of volunteers in the
palliative team to provide comprehensive palliative care for patients and
their families. Considering that these activities are financed by donations,
rich experience in writing and implementing projects was accumulated.
e:
Blazenka Eror Matic
La Verna, Croatia
The role of volunteers in palliative care
Journal of Primary Care and General Practice | Volume 2
J Prim Care Gen Pract, Volume:2