Support, love and connection to clients: A place for palliative care volunteers as part of a community of care

Greg is Manager of Client Care Volunteers at Peninsula Home Hospice and a Social Worker with 20 years experience in health and community services in roles alongside volunteers. Over the past 18 years he has specialised in the field of grief, loss, bereavement and trauma working as a counsellor/therapist and educator. Greg’s PhD focused on spontaneous creativity following the death of a child and also explored expressions of love and connection as ways of living with grief and loss. He has a longstanding interest in community connectedness and the ways in which community members care for each other.

Abstract
Author: Greg Roberts

The presentation will explore examples of how volunteers demonstrate love and care for the people they support in Community Based Palliative Care. The focus will be in regard to the level and depth of connection that can occur between a volunteer and a client in ways that respect personal boundaries and yet also create challenges for how these bonds and relationships unfold. In short the presentation will look at developing role boundaries that are flexible enough to support human connectedness at meaningful and sometimes profound levels, while also ensuring that boundaries are in place to care for the ongoing social and emotional wellbeing of both volunteers and clients.