Volunteer Voices: VOCAL Midlothian
As part of the National Volunteer Recruitment Campaign, we aim to promote volunteering by highlighting the experiences of volunteers in Midlothian. By looking at their journeys into volunteering and the impact it has had on their lives, we hope to inspire potential future volunteers.
We’re delighted to share a story from a volunteer named Euan. He volunteers with VOCAL, who provide support for unpaid carers in Edinburgh and Midlothian, to help identify the issues affecting them and achieve the best possible outcome for carers.
Euan
Volunteer at VOCAL
“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 1st 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”.
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 1st 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”.
