Volunteering at Mount Gould Rehabilitation Unit, Lisa's Story
We recently caught up with Lisa Matthews, a former patient of the Rehabilitation Unit at Mount Gould…
After becoming very unwell last year, Lisa became a patient at the unit, and noticed there weren’t any volunteers at that time. Unable to return to her job after her illness, Lisa decided to get in touch with the Volunteer Services team at UHP to enquire about helping, specifically at the Rehab Unit.
The General Rehab Unit (Skylark and Kingfisher wards at Mount Gould) have the capacity of 35 patients each. The unit sees patients that a are on a rehab journey with the intention to get them home or into a care home. They provide physiotherapy, occupational therapy intervention and social worker support.
Lisa starts her day by speaking to staff to understand which patients require support that day. She helps patients by simply chatting to them, helping with activities such as colouring and reading, or taking them out into the garden, which is tended to by another UHP volunteer, Ann. Lisa also likes to help with encouraging the patients to eat and drink.
Lisa said: “From start to finish, the process of becoming a volunteer only took a few weeks. Staff were on hand to assist with my application, and I had to complete some online training before starting.”
She continued: “The staff are fantastic. The care they give to patients is amazing. The support staff treat me like a member of the team which is what I need, as I have been unable to return to my previous employment. Volunteering has given me a purpose. The staff always thank me, and I really adore it.”
Elaine Nicholl, Community Hospital Support Manager, said: “To get volunteers here has made a massive difference to patient welfare, but also to staff welfare because they feel like some of the pressure has been removed as patients want the clinical staff to spend time with them, but they don’t have the capacity to do that.
