Caption: Aged care volunteer Debbie Orman (left) with Meals on Wheels volunteer Brett McRae (right)
Leading with heart in aged care volunteering
Six years ago when Debbie started volunteering with Suncare Community Services she never expected to be managing almost 200 volunteers from Rockhampton to Brisbane’s north.
From onboarding volunteers to delivering Meals on Wheels, to helping form meaningful friendships and combat social isolation through the Aged Care Volunteer Visitor Scheme (ACVVS), Debbie does it all.
Despite sacrificing her own time, Debbie says it is the support she gets from older people in return she finds the most fulfilling.
“We need to remember that an older person has had a rich life and has knowledge to offer others,” Debbie says. “You can’t underestimate the value of volunteer connections.”
When her volunteers meet with older people, they listen, learn and recognise the value that comes from decades of experience.
“We need to listen and to really hear what the older person has to say, what they need, how they are feeling,” she says. “More focus on person-centred care. The volunteer may be the only person that the older person sees on any given day.”
For Debbie, the most rewarding part of her job is the people who give up their own time to make a difference in someone’s life. She believes that each volunteer brings a unique quality to their role, which in turn helps to match each person with the right fit.
“I am the link between staff, customers and volunteers. It’s an incredibly rewarding role,” Debbie says. “It is the energy the volunteers give to their roles that makes it easy for me to work hard for them.”
Debbie hopes to inspire more people to volunteer. She says that Suncare could not do the work they do or offer the quality of service that they do without their volunteers.
“I am blessed to work alongside such wonderful people. It doesn’t get much better than this.”
Make a positive impact to older people in your community by finding aged care volunteering opportunities.