5.0 Management Report (cont'd)
Dementia supports will require a minimum of two support volunteers/household where the dementia client is residing at their home To support the work of PCSBV, two advisory committees were established, the Interdisciplinary Advisory Committee and the Program Advisory Committee both including membership from partners in palliative care in the Bow Valley.
Learnings
Annual programming plan would be beneficial to maintain an understanding of capacity / workload over the year to better manage workload and calendar conflicts. Zero uptake with the Art Therapy Grief Group for teens suggests a need to assess teen palliative/grief needs in the valley in consultation with the school division and other colleagues associated with child/teen supports and PCSBV’s role in this specialist area. Adequate lead time and comprehensive needs assessment is needed to grow public awareness before launching new programs
Volunteers Achievements
Total active volunteers by end of year – approximately 90 (51 Client Care trained or in training) During the year, we received 59 client referrals and volunteers conducted 238 client consultations. At the end of year, PCSBV volunteers continue to support approximately 70 clients. Clients are located throughout the Bow Valley, proportionately to the general distribution of population. The number of palliative care clients continue to grow as volunteers are trained. These clients now represent over 40% of our referrals with remainder seeking support for grief and loss. Similarly, we are seeing a change in the types of diagnosis that our clients are experiencing, with clients who have received a dementia diagnosis accounting for a third of our referrals. Volunteer training calendar live on PCSBV website and up to date with PCSBV training offerings along with those of other PEOLC (Palliative and End of Life Care) society. PCSBV organized a Volunteer Coordinator’s community of practice that meets monthly to discuss training needs and to share resources related to training and deployment of volunteers. Representatives from 8 Alberta hospice/palliative care societies are currently participating. Shared training means PCSBV volunteers can complete training (according to their personal availability) within two months rather than one year Anticipating that each organization providing training modules will specialize, selecting the modules for which they have facilitator expertise, reducing duplication within the PEOLC community February 2022: second cohort of volunteers begin training March 2022: first client care volunteers connected with clients Summer 2022: initial collaboration with Canmore General Hospital (AHS) to co-onboard palliative volunteers with PCSBV and AHS December 2022: first client death with a connected volunteer. Subsequently, 13 more clients died during the year. Support for the connected volunteers was provided in all cases. March 2023: 50th client care volunteer application received
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