Category: Volunteering

“I retired in 2019 after 30 years as a Police Officer and then lockdown hit.
 
My wife had been a nurse for over 40 years until her retirement in 2017, and with the arrival of the pandemic, she volunteered to go to a COVID Ward to help out and ultimately to assist in the vaccination programme.
I felt like I should also try and help out, so in June 2020, volunteered to be a telephone befriender via the Midlothian group “Fancy a Blether”. I was given two older gentlemen to engage with over the phone once a week and did so for the next year. To be honest, I found it difficult to keep the conversation going at times and ultimately realised this type of role wasn’t a good fit for me.
 
I then got in contact with the Edinburgh Food Project at Sighthill and did some work there for a few weeks before moving on to support the work at the Vaccination Centre at The Royal Highland Showground.  This was a massive operation and the role involved welcoming people to the Centre and providing information and reassurance to them before and after vaccination.
 
The travelling to and from the Showground proved to be problematic so in March 2021 I started to cover the Vaccination Centre at Gorebridge Leisure Centre and worked there until February 2022.
 
In March that year I began working as a volunteer driver with HCL Transport, based at Loanhead, who provide supported accessible transport for people with mobility challenges in Edinburgh and the Lothians. 
 
I’m still working there today and having done a variety of roles, I’ve eventually found the one that best suits me. I enjoy the driving and meeting the service users who absolutely rely on us to get out and about. As a volunteer I can be really flexible about when I work and the company are always happy when I’m available to help out.
 
I would encourage everyone to get involved in the volunteer sector if they are able, as many groups and organisations are crying out for help. There is a role out there for everyone!”

“My interface with Vocal and the services they offer started after my mother passed away, leaving my father at 88 with Dementia. I did not even consider myself a carer until mail for my mother from Vocal was still coming to her, as I had not informed them of her death. On reading the mail from Vocal, I realised that I was not alone on the journey that was unfolding in front of me.
 
My father had a professional care package already in place. 
I attended several of Vocal’s day courses to help me understand his condition and prepare for what lay ahead. At my first course, all who attended were asked to introduce themselves, say who they were caring for and say what condition or type of dementia the person they were caring for had.
 
I had no idea until that first course how many different types of dementia there are and more importantly, I had no idea what dementia my father was suffering from, I had never asked and my mother never told me. I contacted our GP practice, and because I had been listed by my mum as next of kin after she passed away, I was told my dad had Alzheimer’s and Vascular Dementia. Our relationship over my 3-year caring journey went through a complete role reversal of our parent-child roles. I took early retirement from my job  BUT  when I tell you my final job was being in charge of the Roads Department for the City of Edinburgh Council it wasn’t too hard to step way early.                          
So, I ended up feeding my dad, reading him stories, consoling him, wiping his bottom and, along with his paid carers, generally looking after him. I found that looking back through family photo albums and listening to music stimulated his failing memory and brought us closer together. I never lived with my father but interacted with his paid carers on a daily basis.
 
The break sessions in the Vocal courses I attended started the participants informally discussing their roles as carers, and through that I was more able to accept my role as a carer, as well as my role as a son. The discussions brought the attendees together in sharing the experience they were going through with their family members.
 
I think Vocal picked up on this interaction and asked for volunteers to be trained as “peer mentors”, to literally share experiences with carers in similar roles. I carried out the training, became a peer mentor and, in that role, have met many carers over the past few years. My father passed away at 91, when I was being trained, so my carer role ceased, but I continued training to become a peer mentor. 
 
I still find it cathartic to talk about my father and the caring experience I had with him, so peer mentoring has given me that sharing opportunity to talk about my father, that otherwise would never have happened. 
I am assured by Vocal staff who receive the feedback from carers who have been through peer mentoring, that it has been a hugely positive experience and is very well received. It may however never have happened if, as I believe, Vocal had not keenly observed the interactions of attendees at their day courses, and seen the value in carers sharing their experiences, in order to help other carers deal better or more knowledgeably with their caring role.
 
Vocal was there for me when I needed information to help me understand my father’s condition and the anticipated journey of a terminal disease. I am fortunate, and I even feel privileged, to have been given the opportunity to repay Vocal by volunteering for them in my role as a peer mentor”.