La Maison de Tara, which featured on our website last year, is a hospice that offers an altermative to hopitalisation for people at the very end of their life. At the hospice, volunteers are not an 'add on' but are at the very heart of the hospice's activities and without themit simply could not exist. Following the success of its first training course, a second training course for English-speaking volunteers will begin in October this year. The course will be held one Saturday per month over a period of a year (see exact dates below).
On the course, volunteers will receive over 100 hours of training in basic knowledge, practical knowhow and 'how to be' with themselves, with residents and their families. Training is given by in-house and external people with deep experience of their subject. Course organizer, Daphne Fresle, told knowitall.ch, "Learning "how to be" is probably of the greatest importance in volunteers' support of patient, family and friends. What matters most is how we are more than what we say or do."
The training programme starts with modules on learning "how to be": the capacity to care emotionally and spiritually for patients, their families and loved ones. Further modules cover infectious disease, hygiene, patient transfer, manipulation of wheelchairs and beds, patient positioning and relaxing massage. Finally there are modules on palliative care, covering: illness, the ageing process, pain control, the death process, experiencing grief and ethics.
The training is open to anyone wishing to become a volunteer. It involves a lot of small group and pair exercises and profound discussions of topics that some participants can find difficult for many reasons. So instead of a pre-selection process, there is a self 'de-selection' during the course as some participants decide that to volunteer at Tara will require greater emotional, psychological or time resources than they have available at this particular stage of life.
For those who complete the course there are many personal rewards. As one volunteer wrote in her evaluation form: "It enabled me to deal with my personal issues and to deal better with life in general. The practices also enabled us to put ourselves in the residents' shoes and to know how to cope with certain situations". Click on "Volunteers" on the Tara website for more feedback and information.
Course dates:
The training will be held at La Maison de Tara, 79 chemin de la Montagne, 1224 Chêne-Bougeries, from 10.00 – 16.30 on the following Saturdays:
2012: 13 October, 10 November, 8 December
2013: 19 January, 9 February, 2 March, 13 April, 11 May, 8 June, 6 July
The training is free of charge although participants are asked to make a voluntary contribution towards its costs (administration, photocopies, tea/coffee, a small gift for visiting teachers, etc.) if they are able.
Further general information about volunteering at La Maison de Tara can be found on the hospice website www.lamaisondetara.ch. For specific questions or to sign up for the course please contact Daphne Fresle (telephone: 022 348 86 66, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
La Maison de Tara
79, chemin de la Montagne
1224 Chêne-Bougeries
022 348 86 66
www.lamaisondetara.ch
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
