All VITAS Hospice Volunteer Opportunities
VITAS offers opportunities that allow volunteers to choose a role in which they are comfortable and fulfilled.
11th Hour Volunteers
Help ensure that no patient dies alone by being present at the final stages of a patient’s life.
Administrative Volunteers
Provide support in the office: filing, preparing mailings, computer input, answering the phones, special projects.
Alternative/Complementary Care Volunteers
Art therapy, aromatherapy, Reiki.
Art Enrichment Volunteers
Patients and families explore their creative side and express their feelings through the visual arts.
Bereavement Volunteers
Visits, phone calls, support groups, memorial services and send bereavement mailings.
Direct Patient Care Volunteers
Visit patients and families at home, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, inpatient hospice units. Pay a friendly visit; relieve a family caregiver for an afternoon out; accompany a patient to the beauty salon, grocery store or a social event; read aloud; listen to memories; walk the dog; be the high point of someone’s day.
Hair Care Volunteers
Volunteers with a current cosmetology license provide haircuts, shampoos and styling to VITAS patients and families.
Life Review Volunteers
Reminisce and/or record a patient’s life stories, perhaps presenting the family with a legacy CD.
Massage Volunteers
Volunteers with current massage therapy license provide friendly touch and massage to patients and their families.
Memory Bear Volunteers
Create one-of-a-kind Memory Bears from VITAS patients’ clothes to comfort the family.
Music Enrichment Volunteers
Singing or playing a musical instrument.
Paw Pals® Volunteers
Screened and trained pets and their volunteer owners visit patients and provide socialization, comfort, life review, etc.
Personal Pampering Volunteers
Trained volunteers apply lotion, polish nails and otherwise raise patients’ esteem.
Photography Volunteers
Taking professional pictures of the patient and family, generally providing a picture CD to the family.
Speaker’s Bureau Volunteers
Speak in the community on topics related to end-of-life care, in the process recruiting volunteers.
Spiritual Care Volunteers
Address spiritual issues at the end of life: meaning, faith, life review, issues related to loss, loneliness, etc.
Student Intern Volunteers
Meet educational requirements for on-the-job experience while providing care to patients and families. Examples: social work, counseling, chaplaincy, nursing, nursing assistants, physician assistants, business schools, massage therapy, community job programs.
Telephone Assurance Program Volunteers
Make supportive phone calls to patients and their families or to bereaved family members following a death.
Veteran Volunteers
Address special end-of-life needs by replacing lost medals, linking veterans to VA benefits, performing life review, visiting on Veteran’s Day, educating veterans organizations, etc.