Hywel Dda Health Board thanks all volunteers

Hywel Dda Health Board has said thank you to its hundreds of volunteers and received national recognition for their work. 

The Volunteering for Health project was set up in 2009 and since then more than 400 local people volunteer have their time, providing 29,933 patient contact hours which has benefited about 119,732 patients.
A special event was recently held to say thank you to the people who had given their time to help staff and patients.
Head of Volunteering services, David Fretwell, said: “Our volunteers day in day out give their time to improve patient’s experience of healthcare.
“They are extremely dedicated and taking the time to say thank you is important, if you see one of our volunteers in their yellow t-shirts please speak to them and say thank you for their help."
In a recent focus group staff fed back on the difference the volunteers were making:
“Patients love having the volunteers to chat to and they enjoy having young people in the hospital.”
“Absolutely brilliant, with both staff and the patients they are brilliant. Volunteers have time to chat with patients and give the time to them whereas staff can be too busy to spend significant amounts of time with individual patients.”
“Patients have received volunteers very nicely and always very smiley when the young people are with them. Patients have commented that it is nice to have someone independent - from staff and sometimes family members - to talk to.”
“Patients general well-being improved. They didn't get so down and depressed because there was someone who had time to dedicate to them. As they weren't so depressed they seemed to recover quicker and therefore discharge was sooner.”
The WCVA presented Volunteering for Health with the Investing in Volunteers quality standard, which is the UK quality standard for organisations involving volunteers.
The standard aims to improve the quality of volunteering experience for volunteers and to encourage organisations to better recognise the enormous contribution made by volunteers.
Head of Volunteering Services, David Fretwell, said: “This award demonstrates that Hywel Dda Health Board is working to best practice, managing our volunteers properly and the volunteers themselves know we are doing our best to support them in their roles to support patients in hospitals.
“It was one of the key aims of project to achieve Investing in Volunteers status, allowing us to measure our systems and practice against a nationally recognised external standard.”
To find out about the Volunteering for Health scheme go to www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/volunteering