New funding for Friends of the ED & call for volunteers
After Hato Hone St John’s announced late last year that they’d be discontinuing the Friend of the Emergency Department (FEDs), a lifeline has appeared, with the Palmerston North Hospital Foundation confirming $75,000 in funding for the next three years. With it’s future now secure, the Foundation is calling for more people to join this crucial volunteer team.
FED volunteers have supported the Emergency Department for nearly two decades, offering companionship, refreshments, and a friendly face to patients and their whānau during stressful times. Around 20 volunteers help in Palmerston North, with another half a dozen volunteers supporting Horowhenua's STAR ward. Between them, they cover four hour shifts seven days a week from 10am to 10pm, helping free up nursing and medical staff so they can focus on clinical care.
Foundation Chair Brendan Duffy says that the decision to back the volunteers was unanimous. “They help bring a little normality when people need it most, and we know ED doctors say they’d be lost without them.”
“Whether you realise it or not, every person in this region knows someone — a friend, family member or colleague — who’s been helped by a FED volunteer. For me, it’s been my wife, my mother and my father-in-law.”
Many of the volunteers say that’s exactly why they got involved — because someone cared for them. Volunteer Lola Sharpe says she remembers sitting late at night with her mother, who had just had a stroke. “It was 9.30pm, and a woman in a white shirt popped her head round the door to ask if I’d like a cup of tea. I went ‘What, me?’ I thought she was asking for mum.
“But this lady came and chatted with me, and it was exactly what I needed. I asked her later on about why she was at the hospital and she explained about the Friends programme. I thought immediately, ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’”
Lola Sharpe says that people don’t realise how easy it is to fit in with regular life. “It’s only one four hour shift a week, and you can do it outside a normal nine-to-five job, which isn’t common for many volunteering roles. We’d love more people for the after work or weekend shifts.”
Judy Seccombe, who’s been volunteering for two years, says it’s a privilege to be involved. “We offer care on people’s hardest days and help break up the wait in the ED. We don’t have to do any dirty jobs! It’s wonderful to feel you’ve made a difference, just by popping in and out of people’s lives.
“Right now, we’re a few people short for our buddy system of two people on each shift - so we really need more volunteers! It’s brilliant for retired nurses and those who’ve worked in health, but you don’t need any clinical experience. We want people of all ages, from all walks of life!”
Anyone interested in joining the Friends of the Emergency Department can find out more by emailing volunteer@midcentraldhb.govt.nz