It's deemed as a service to help people refocus their hope. Now, South Shore Health is looking for more volunteers for their palliative care program. They currently have 15 volunteers, but more are needed to cover the region. The bereavement coordinator, Irene Hirtle, says the South Shore has an older demographic and is more prone to life-threatening illnesses.
"And those kind of illnesses that people in our program suffer from could be malignant diagnosis like cancer or they could be respiratory like COPD or kidney failure, cardiac disease, all of those kinds of things and they can all be part of the palliative care program, too."
Palliative care can be provided to people at home, in a hospital or in a long-term care facility. Volunteer Liz Brown says she started volunteering 12 years ago and hasn't looked back.
"It was just a general interest in people I think, and we meet such wonderful people and we get so much back from what we give, so its a caring and sharing opportunity for everybody."
Brown says volunteering is a great way to help people with life-threatening illnesses. Anyone interested in volunteering should contact 634-7015.
