🏥 Compassionate Companion | Dementia/Delirium In-Patients (Auchenflower)
💜 Volunteer to change lives. Yours included.
This volunteer opportunity will help to provide social engagement for in-patients living with dementia or experiencing delirium.
The Wesley Hospital’s Compassionate Companion Dementia/Delirium In-patient (CC-DDIP) program is focused on offering patients social engagement in addition to the high-quality care patients receive. While routines in hospital are focused on providing the high-quality clinical care, the fast-paced clinical environments can at times be disruptive to a person’s general wellbeing, especially when it is difficult for family and friends to visit. We know that social engagement has many benefits for patients and is demonstrated to support recovery and reduce the length of stay in hospital.
Supported by Pastoral Care Services and the multi-disciplinary care team, the CC-DDIP patient service connects volunteers with patients for social engagement. Volunteers are trained and supported to specifically engage with patients living with dementia and delirium in ward environments. Vulnerability for these in-patients' centres around cognitive impairment. The program is designed to be tailored to patient’s needs with our highly engaged volunteer team members and clinicians working together for the provision of excellent patient care.
Volunteers will have direct contact with patients in hospital wards under the supervision of nursing staff.
✅ What you’ll be doing:
- Various social engagement activities suitable to individual patients
- Converse with patients
- Accompany walks to hospital gardens
🎁 What’s in it for you?
- Experience the joy of making a meaningful difference
- Gain invaluable workplace experience
- Enjoy social interaction with others
☑️ Skills and experience important for this role include:
- 18 years or older in compliance with hospital policies and procedures
- Comfortable meeting new people,
- Compassion, self-confidence, flexibility and initiative
☑️ We’ll need to do the following checks before you start:
- Reference Checks
♿ Accessibility & Diversity UnitingCare values diversity in our organisation and we have some principles in place that will help to promote both inclusion and access. If you have any other accessibility requirements, please discuss these at the time of the interview.
The Wesley - Caring for you for life. The Wesley Hospital is one of Australia’s iconic and largest private not-for-profit hospitals. From the heart of Brisbane more than 800 Visiting Medical Practitioners and 2,000 staff deliver personalised care through life’s journey for generations of Queenslanders. We offer comprehensive care across a wide range of acute tertiary-level medical and surgical services, and through research and education we’re constantly searching for the latest in treatment techniques and processes. We show consideration of the whole person and not just their physical health, placing our patients and their loved ones at the heart of everything we do.
Child safe, Child friendly
UnitingCare is committed to being a Child Safe, Child Friendly organisation and will:
▪ Provide welcoming, safe and nurturing services for children
▪ Implement measures to prevent child abuse and neglect within our services
▪ Appropriately and immediately address child abuse and neglect if it does occur
▪ Abide by the Child Safe Standards and adhere to the Reportable Conduct Scheme
Commitment to Safeguarding
We are committed in creating services and workplaces that are welcoming and safe for every person. We work together to protect children, young people, adults and the elderly from harm within our services and the communities we support. We speak up for their safety to ensure their voices are heard. Our recruitment and workplace practices reflect our dedication in preventing abuse, harm and exploitation across UnitingCare.
️❤️ UnitingCare’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Child Safety Statement ❤️
*UnitingCare is committed to child-safe practices and to building a volunteer workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We value cultural knowledge and lived experience, and we strongly encourage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to apply. To ensure our team mirrors the diversity of the children in our care, We actively invite
volunteers from all backgrounds, including young people (15–24 years), people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, people with disability, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and older people seeking purpose and connection.*
UnitingCare is committed to equitable access and will provide reasonable adjustments to support all applicants. Please advise us of any accessibility requirements at the time of your interview.