Volunteering for hospice can be a meaningful and rewarding experience. In fact, the benefits of hospice volunteering extend beyond helping the patients and families; it is also a beneficial experience for the volunteers. 

Hospice care, found locally at Tillery Compassionate Care in Albemarle, focuses on providing comfort and support to individuals facing short-term fatal illnesses, as well as to their loved ones.

Volunteers play a crucial role, offering companionship and emotional support in a loved one’s final days. 

Engaging in hospice volunteering is not only an act of compassion, but also a journey that fosters personal growth, emotional resilience and a deeper understanding of life and death for the volunteer.

A Closer Look at the Benefits of Hospice Volunteering

One of the most significant benefits of volunteering for hospice with an agency such as Tillery Compassionate Care is the sense of purpose it brings. 

Volunteers often report an emotional fulfillment from knowing they are making a difference during one of the most vulnerable times in a person’s life. 

Unlike other forms of volunteering, hospice work involves creating meaningful connections with individuals and families. This connection can be incredibly rewarding. 

For many volunteers, the experience gives life a renewed sense of purpose and reinforces values of empathy, kindness and service.

Volunteering in a hospice setting naturally brings one closer to the realities of mortality, prompting reflection on one’s own life, priorities and relationships. Many volunteers find that spending time with those nearing the end of life helps them appreciate their own lives more deeply. 

It often leads to a reevaluation of what is important — relationships, time, health and meaningful experiences. 

By witnessing the strength, grace and vulnerability of patients, volunteers with Tillery Compassionate Care can gain a deeper appreciation for life and develop a greater sense of gratitude.

What Type of Training Do Hospice Volunteers Receive?

Volunteers often receive training in:

• Communication
• Active listening
• Compassionate presence 

These skills are not only essential in a hospice setting but are also valuable in everyday life. Being present for someone who is dying teaches the importance of nonverbal communication. 

Volunteers learn how to support people emotionally, skills that can improve relationships and interactions in other areas of their lives.

Working with terminally ill patients and their families requires emotional strength by volunteers, but it also builds resilience over time. Volunteers with Tillery Compassionate Care learn how to process grief, handle difficult emotions and provide calm in moments of crisis. 

This emotional maturity becomes a strength in personal and professional life, enabling volunteers to navigate their own challenges with more grace and insight.

Volunteers: Valued Members of the Hospice Team

Volunteers often become part of a tight-knit community that shares similar values of compassion and service. The sense of shared purpose can be uplifting and encouraging. 

Volunteers frequently report that they feel supported not only by the hospice staff but also by other volunteers who understand the emotional meaning of the work. 

Some of the volunteers at Tillery Compassionate Care find the work so rewarding that they log thousands of hours of volunteering each year.

Volunteers often provide companionship that wards off loneliness, offer a hand to hold in someone’s final hours or support family members struggling with grief. These acts of kindness are significant to families and the person receiving the care.

Volunteers Are An Important Part of Tillery Compassionate Care

Volunteering for Tillery Compassionate Care is not just a service to others — it is an act of humanity that nurtures personal growth, emotional intelligence and spiritual awareness.

And volunteers with Tillery Compassionate Care know they are volunteering with an organization that has a track record of providing care for more than 8,000 individuals over the last 40-plus years. 

Tillery Compassionate Care was also the first hospice in North Carolina to achieve Age-Friendly Care at Home certification through Community Health Accreditation Partner, Inc.

Call 704-983-4216 or visit tillerycompassionatecare.org to learn more about how Tillery Compassionate Care can meet your needs today.

Tillery Compassionate Care – a nonprofit organization providing compassionate care since 1981.