Volunteering in palliative care during COVID-19 pandemic
Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed situation of volunteering in palliative care units all over the
world. The involvement of volunteers who formed and supported hospices and were involved in palliative
care provided to patients and families was significantly hampered. According to multicenter CovPall study
conducted in 2020 a total of 79% palliative care units explored significantly rarer utilized volunteers support.
In spite of difficult epidemiology situation in some palliative care units volunteers provided psycho-social
and spiritual support to patients after being training regarding rules of protection against being infected,
although with less frequency compared before pandemic.
Keywords: COVID-19hospicepalliative carevolunteeringvolunteers
References
- Krakowiak P, Pawłowski L. Volunteering in hospice and palliative care in Poland and Eastern Europe. Oxford Scholarship Online. 2018.
- Oluyase A, Hocaoglu M, Cripps R, et al. The Challenges of Caring for People Dying From COVID-19: A Multinational, Observational Study (CovPall). Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. 2021.
- Gomez-Batiste X, Leyva J, Tuca A, et al. Organización paliativa durante la pandemia de la COVID-19 y propuestas para la adaptación de los servicios y programas de cuidados paliativos y de atención psicosocial ante la posibilidad de reactivación de la pandemia y época pos-COVID-19. Medicina Paliativa. 2020.
- Pelttari L, Pissarek AH. „Being there“. Palliat Med Pract. 2018; 12(3): 131–134.
- Goossensen A. Hospice and palliative care volunteering in the Netherlands. Practices of being there. Palliat Med Pract. 2018; 12(4): 193–197.
- Mathews L, Immanuel T, Krishnadas N. Running Palliative Care Services at the Institute of Palliative Medicine, Kozhikode, Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis. Indian J Palliat Care. 2020; 26(Suppl 1): S48–S52.
- Cheng HW. Palliative care for cancer patients with severe COVID-19: the challenge of uncertainty. Support Care Cancer. 2021; 29(3): 1153–1155.
- Nakagawa S, Berlin A, Widera E, et al. Pandemic Palliative Care Consultations Spanning State and Institutional Borders. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2020; 68(8): 1683–1685.
- Zaurova M, Krouss M, Israilov S, et al. Working Upstream in Advance Care Planning in Pandemic Palliative Care. Health Secur. 2020 [Epub ahead of print].
- Blinderman CD, Adelman R, Kumaraiah D, et al. A Comprehensive Approach to Palliative Care during the Coronavirus Pandemic. J Palliat Med. 2020 [Epub ahead of print].
- European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) WH and PCA (WHPCA), (IAHPC) IA for H& PC. Voice of Volunteering The EAPC Madrid Charter on Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care. Palliat Med Pract [Internet]. 2018; 12(2): 127–128. https://journals.viamedica.pl/palliative_medicine_in_practice/article/view/58736.
