IAHPC BOOK REVIEW VOLUNTEERS IN HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE
A Handbook for Volunteer Service Managers
Derek Doyle (Ed)
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Oxford University Press, 2002
223 pp
ISBN 0 19851608 8
RRP £19.95 $US31.50 
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Volunteers are an important and integral part of palliative care services all around the world. Volunteers help in innumerable ways and contribute to the calmness and homeliness that is a palliative
care ward or hospice. But for all this to happen effectively is no mean feat, and that is the complex and demanding job of the Volunteer Service Manager or VSM.
This handbook for VSMs is full of interesting and informative descriptions regarding all facets of the VSM’s role, in different clinical settings, in different countries. It shows the title
that my Unit still uses - Co-ordinator of Volunteers - is patently inadequate, for it is not just about co-ordinating a group of people but a multidimensional management role. It’s about working
with the rest of the organisation on the one hand and providing all the inspiration and support that volunteers deserve on the other. This is not a "how to do it" book, but it is always
helpful to see how others have addressed various problems or to see that there may be a number of different solutions.
Derek Doyle is to be congratulated on producing another excellent volume for palliative care. I think that any palliative care service with volunteers should obtain a copy for their VSM, as
a token of support and gratitude. And if it is left around to be read by other managers working in the service, there will be even better recognition and appreciation of the complex job that
VSMs do.
Roger Woodruff
Director of Palliative Care, Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia
(Nov. 2002)
Author Information
Derek Doyle is Vice-President of the National Council for Hospital and Specialist Palliative Care Services
President Emeritus of the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC), and
Formerly Medical Director, St. Columba’s Hospice, Edinburgh
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. The managerial role of the Volunteer Service Manager 10
3. The position of the Volunteer Service Manager within the organisation 23
4. The selection of volunteers 34
5. The training and education of volunteers 52
6. The support of volunteers 80
7. Volunteers working in a comprehensive palliative care service 93
8. Volunteers working in a community palliative care service 111
9. Volunteers working in a tertiary referral teaching hospital 129
10. Volunteers in a children’s hospice 144
11. Volunteers working in a bereavement service 163
12. Professionals working as volunteers 176
13. Legal issues for the Volunteer Service Manager 186
14. Ethical issues for the Volunteer Service Manager 203
Glossary 215
Index 217
 
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