Panacea

To ensure that I can meet the required 40 hours of service I will be pulling what I call “over-time”. This means I will be volunteering on at least two other days outside of my usual Fridays with Cameron. This Wednesday I will be volunteering at a jazz concert where I will be expected to transport the patients to and from the event location, and sit with patients. Also, a couple Sundays from now I will be a volunteer in a Purim party held in one of the other Baycrest complexes. Purim is ofcourse an annual celebration of the deliverance of the Jewish people in the Biblical story of Esther. The story is one of my favourites so I am excited to see Baycrest’s version of the commemoration.

In the time I’ve spent at Baycrest I have just now recused myself of the idea that I could bring something new and perhaps innovative to patient care at Baycrest. The reality is that there are so many volunteers and having the huge responsibility of health care institution Baycrest, and their staff are obliged to do things by the book. This leaves little wiggle room for innovation. But along with the other volunteers I believe my role is to help keep things running by increasing the avidity of the team effort at Baycrest. Sort of like the analogy “two heads are better than one”. So far I haven’t experienced the analogy of “too many hands spoil the broth” because there are always people to help and things that need to be accomplished. For instance, on Friday instead of helping Cameron with his two charges at the evening Shabbat service I decided to ask the recreational therapist for the floor if there was anyone else that I could help bring downstairs to the service. She escorted me around the corner and down one of the many wide hallways to a small lady hunched over in a wheelchair sitting in front of a TV. At that moment new and innovative didn’t matter only ensuring that the client was as comfortable as possible with me especially with the diagnosis of dementia.

One of the volunteers in the afternoon Shabbat service asked us earlier if we would continue volunteering at Baycrest even after our required 40 hours. The truth is I don’t know if it would even be feasible for me to do so for a variety of reasons like cost of travel. But in a perfect world I would love to be able to volunteer at Baycrest long term. And when I think about the life that I want in the future it will have to include service. For me service is a part of my morality-and I talking about service on a large scale like Baycrest. In Jeffery Stout’s article he disagrees that there is a sort of common morality that we as humans share. I believe that people know that helping others is moral but self-centeredness (apart from physical/intellectual limitations) often thwarts are best intentions to act morally in this way. We may protest that we don’t have the time, we don’t know what cause to support and the list goes on. But I think we all feel a little guilty when we pass up the chance to share our abilities in order to ensure the well-being of another.

Client Care

Last Friday’s visit to Baycrest was too short but also very sweet. It was sort of like having just one Ferrero Rocher. I had the opportunity for the first time to participate in the large Oneg Shabbat service held on the first floor in the Worstman Hall, adjacent to the cafeteria. I think what made this service so exiting was that the clientele was larger and so there were more individuals able to verbally communicate. Also for the first time I spoke with a man who used to be a patient at Baycrest but was there just to volunteer with his wife. He was wheelchair dependent and he did make it known to me that he might become a patient again in the near future. I found it interesting that he did not speak of becoming a patient at Baycrest with any trepidation. Maybe he was confident that his stay wouldn’t be permanent. Equally likely is that his experience at Baycrest was so positive that he just didn’t mind being there. I haven’t been volunteering at Baycrest for very long but in the time that I have spent there I haven’t heard any complaints from the clients about either the staff or the hospital. On the other hand I have heard many positives about the nursing staff and I have seen expressions of happiness and gratitude. The environment is so positive that it is easy to forget that I’m volunteering in a traditionally high stress environment. My mom works in a hospital which I have visited on occasion, and I find that her hospital runs at a much faster pace than Baycrest. Also, the care appears to be more transactional even at the nursing level (cause and effect maybe?). And let’s not mention the Bureaucracy. So what really makes religious institutions more compassionate, more apt to slow down the pace and take time for patient?  I think it has to do with who is in charge and the policies they set forth. For instance, although workplace bullying is not commonly tolerated aversion towards bullying may be stressed more often in religious institutions as a result of religious belief. Moreover, I believe that secular institutions (e.g. a hospital) operate with one purpose-to provide a service in exchange for something tangible. This something could be money, public peace, future benefits etc. Whereas religious institutions may hold the intangible to an equal or even greater regard. The intangible can be as simple as client satisfaction.

Just an update on the museum project: It has been postponed until the 26^th of this month but classes finish soon after that so I figure I won’t be participating. So now I need to contact my volunteer co-ordinator to ensure that I can complete the 40 hour requirement. Wish me luck!