Helping Hands and Hearts
The Gift of Time
Pikes Peak Hospice & Palliative Care offers a variety of volunteer opportunities. If you are interested in supporting our mission, we have a variety of opportunities to match your unique interests and talents. Our dedicated team of volunteers generously donate their time as part of our Direct Patient Care Volunteer Team, our Bereavement Volunteer Team and/or our Administrative Volunteer Team.
Each day our clinical care teams are joined by specially trained volunteers who step into the lives of patients and families in need of grace and compassion. They offer patients the gift of time – a presence in the room, a friend to talk to, a hand to hold, or respite for loved ones.
Direct Patient Care Volunteers
Our direct patient care volunteers meet with our patients and their caregivers at the patient’s location, which may be a private residence, a long-term care facility, an assisted living community, or our own hospice inpatient unit at Penrose Hospital. We offer a variety of services, many of which are Complementary Therapies that support traditional medical treatment to ease pain, control symptoms and increase quality of life. Complementary Therapies are not funded by insurance but are sustained through donations from the community to our Foundation and performed by our specially trained Volunteers.
Pet Therapy
Pet Therapy, also known as animal-assisted therapy, in the hospice setting uses the natural bond between humans and animals to provide comfort, peace, and soothing companionship for terminally-ill patients. Our program matches certified pet therapy animals with patients and offers one-on-one interactions. Visits last according to the patient’s and family’s needs. Pet therapy teams are also often requested for events in our community.
Healing Touch Therapies
Healing Touch Therapy Volunteers deliver hand and foot massage with the use of blended essential oils. Our trained volunteers in this program offer the physical and emotional benefits of human touch which has been shown to decrease anxiety, agitation, pain, and joint stiffness. Healing Touch Therapy can improve a patient’s quality of life by increasing overall relaxation.
Aromatherapy
Our Aromatherapy Volunteers provide comfort to patients and their families by using our specially created blended oils to soothe and relax patients. Aromatherapy stimulates the body’s own natural healing abilities, encompasses the whole person, and is individualized for each patient. Studies have shown that aromas can produce a wide range of effects and can be of great benefit to physical and psychological health.
Soothing Sounds Music
Our Soothing Sounds Music Volunteers are local musicians and singers who use their talent to create a joyful, calming musical environment for patients and their loved ones. The program includes guitarists, pianists, harpists, and a singing group named the Pikes Peak Threshold Singers.
Friends in Faith
Patients who identify with a particular faith tradition or culture may request a volunteer of the same or similar tradition or culture. We align this special relationship between volunteers, patients and families based on spirituality, religious practices, and/or theology and philosophy.
Veteran Outreach
Our Veteran Outreach Volunteers provide support to patients who have served in the military. Pikes Peak Hospice and Palliative Care is a Level 5 Participant in the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s We Honor Veterans Program, the highest attainable designation. We recognize the core values held by those who have served our country. We match our veteran patients with veteran volunteers to ensure unity, understanding, and comfort at end of life. Veteran to veteran events, community events, presentation of flag pins, and certificates, are only a few of the ways we support our veterans.
Reiki
Our Reiki Practitioner Volunteers use their empathy, compassion, and knowledge of this unique form of touch therapy to create a deeper sense of well-being through reducing stress, easing post-traumatic stress, and alleviating pain.
Vigil Volunteers
Our trained Vigil Volunteers provide comforting presence to patients actively dying at home or in a facility. These volunteers are present for the family who may need support, or who cannot be with the patient, so “No One Dies Alone.”
Companionship & Respite
Our Companionship and Respite Volunteers provide essential social and emotional support by being present with our patients and engaging in activities including reading, watching television, playing games, and conversation. These visits provide peace of mind to caregivers who can leave and know someone is with their loved one.
Household Support
Our volunteers can help caregivers with light housekeeping and other tasks like meal prep, shopping, and organizing.
Other Types of Volunteers
Administrative Volunteers
Our Administrative Volunteers contribute without direct patient involvement. Often, these volunteers support a variety of administrative functions including data entry, reports, mailings, special projects and more.
Bereavement Volunteers
Our Bereavement Volunteers support our Center for Grief and Loss by reaching out to the bereaved of patients who passed under our care, and also to community members who have experienced a loss. Our Bereavement Volunteers document client intake information, help with bereavement mailings, contact clients to schedule counseling sessions and support groups, send bereavement cards and more.
How You Can Help
Give the gift of time and make a significant and lasting difference in the lives of the patients and families we are honored to serve.
Volunteer with Us!
Thank you for your interest. The compassionate care our volunteers provide sets us apart as a hospice with extraordinary standards. Applicants are considered for all positions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, or the presence of a disability, when otherwise qualified. Once Volunteer Services receives and reviews the application a Coordinator will be in touch to set up a mandatory first interview. Please note: Pikes Peak Hospice & Palliative Care is unable to accept any volunteers that have suffered a loss of a friend or family member in the last 13 months, been convicted of a felony, or require court ordered community service hours. Please note that we require our volunteers to have a Tuberculosis (TB) screening and to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Volunteer Training
Our volunteer program begins with comprehensive training on what it means to work with the dying, and how we uniquely care for them at Pikes Peak Hospice & Palliative Care. Topics include patient care, communication, family dynamics, the dying process, bereavement, and much more. Volunteers are then mentored in the area where they choose to work. The commitment continues with regular continuing education, and ongoing support.
Steps to Becoming a Volunteer
Note: Additional training and/or certification may be required for the volunteer programs listed below:
- Touch Therapy
- Vigil Volunteers
- Friends in Faith
- Inpatient Unit Volunteers
- Pet Therapy (annual certification and vaccination)
2023 Volunteer Orientation Dates
Orientation meets the first Wednesdays of each month from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Upon registration for orientation, a member of our team will reach out with more information.
Contact Volunteer Services
For more information, call our main number at 719.633.3400 and ask for our Volunteer Department or email us at VolunteerServices@pikespeakhospice.org