“When my lovely Mother-in-law who I loved dearly was put into a Nursing home due to a stroke. I was working full time and I was in the middle of accreditation so being the Coordinator I had a lot of paperwork to finalize and felt guilty because I could only visit her on weekends. I would have loved to know that someone was visiting her it would have helped with the guilt. When I retired this was the perfect thing to do.”
“I think it is an extremely important service for both the recipient and their family. It’s a win, win, situation because a loving family who has given permission for their loved one to have a Community Visitor Scheme volunteer will be comforted to know that their family member in a Nursing Home will have a person who will just pop in for a chat at least once a week.”
“Even though Nursing Homes have a lot of activities for their Clients, as people get older they lose their eyesight so they no longer watch tv, read, do crafts or participate in activities that need better eyesight. Or they can be physically unable to go because it’s just too hard.”
“For the past two years, I have visited three beautiful ladies every week, Beverley, Margaret and Sarah.”
“I was worried about how I would feel if one passed away, this happened Christmas last year but I was so thankful that I spent time with Beverley because her family knew someone was visiting her when they couldn’t. Plus I have a lovely memory of a lovely person.”
“Every week I visit Margaret and Sarah. We talk about family and things they use to love doing. I do Margaret’s nails every now and then and role-play a nail technician, which makes Margaret laugh. And then there’s Sara who had a love for cooking before her new life in the Nursing Home. I’m taking notes of her recipes so I can make Sara’s recipe book and she will be able to give it to someone as a present. I’m doing this because Sara can’t have her nails done due to her dialysis and I wanted to do something special for her. I’m very lucky because I have two lovely friends.”
“It’s a win-win situation. In my case, I made three new friends and I love to hear their stories and share some of mine. It makes me feel good because I made someone else feel good.”
Please help us by reading up about our CVS programme or donating so we can continue providing and training more volunteers for this crucial service.