Start making your impact today!

Imagine walking into a hospital where everyone, from the doctors to the volunteers, shares a deep sense of purpose. That's the atmosphere you'll find at Grace Healthcare. This organization is guided by a set of core values that shape how they care for patients and the community: compassion, excellence, integrity, and justice. Let's take a closer look at what these values truly mean in action in multiple counties across New Jersey.

About the Volunteering

This reader's requested opportunity provides you an in-depth look at hospice care. If you have an hour or more per week to give, Grace Healthcare Services welcomes your gifts of time and compassion. Whether you choose to work directly with patients and families or to volunteer in one of many other ways, you can make a profound difference in someone’s life, including your own. Volunteers are an integral part of the hospice team. Here are the different ways that you can help:

• Companionship Volunteers work directly with patients providing companionship, offering friendly visits, reading to patients, writing letters, offering a gentle touch or sharing a quiet moment.

• Complementary Volunteers are certified/trained professionals who can provide complementary modalities of reflexologly, music, imagery and touch therapies such as Reiki, massage, therapeutic touch and healing hands.

• Pet Therapy Volunteers provide certified/trained pets who visit with patients. These animals provide loving memories for some and give unconditional love helping our patients feel connected to a larger world.

• 11th Hour Volunteers sit at the bedside of Patients experiencing their final hours. These specifically trained volunteers help Grace Healthcare support its patients by bringing relief to family members who are unable to be present for the death of their loved one. Most importantly, they help to ensure patients that they are not alone.

• Veteran Volunteers are specially trained by Grace Healthcare Services to provide camaraderie and support to both patients and families alike. Many of our patients are veterans and can benefit from a friendly visit from someone who can share the common language and code of conduct of the military. Grace Healthcare services is a level 4 partner in the We Honor Veterans partnership with the Veterans Administration.

• Administrative Volunteers provide help to the staff in our office by assisting with data entry, addressing cards, organizing newsletters, collating manuals and other varied clerical duties

• Craft Volunteers consist of individuals or groups who touch patients in a special way by making lap blankets, shawls, huggable dolls/bears and other articles for patients to enjoy.

• Junior Volunteers consist of groups such as girl/boy scouts or young people who wish to honor our patients by making holiday cards, posters, wall hangings and memory books.

• Bereavement Volunteers offer support to the families and friends of patients who have passed. During the grieving process the bereavement volunteer can be a valuable resource ,especially for those who lack a support network. Hospice training classes are required for Companionship and Complementary Volunteers They are free of charge and offered on an ongoing basis.

About the Volunteering

The different counties that support this are as follows:

• Atlantic County

• Bergen County

• Burlington County

• Camden County

• Cape May County

• Essex County

• Gloucester County

• Hudson County

• Mercer County

• Middlesex County

• Monmouth County

• Morris County

• Ocean County

• Passaic County

• Somerset County

• Union County

To have one of their volunteer coordinators contact you with more specific information about their program please call them at 732-225-4100 or contact them at [email protected]

If you live in one of the above counties, don’t let go of this wonderful opportunity. And as always, don’t hesitate to send us an email at [email protected] to ask for specialties, interviews or opportunities near you!

If you want to continue to help others, request them to subscribe to this newsletter at medvolunteer.org! Have a great day and See you tomorrow!