Build Your Network, Give to Your Community, Be a Volunteer 

The Northwestern Ontario End-of-Life Care Network functions on the volunteer energies of health care professionals and others who wish to build the capacity of our region to provide excellence in end of life care. Volunteers are needed to work in the Network's Standing Committees; Advocacy, Education, Individual & Family.

The Volunteer Hospice Service is a support service where volunteers are recruited, trained, matched with clients and supervised to provide emotional, social and spiritual support to those who are living with a life threatening or terminal illness and their families. Volunteers also provide respite and bereavement support. Hospice volunteers are available in Northwestern Ontario through two not for profit charitable organizations. In Thunder Bay and District, Hospice Northwest recruits and trains volunteers to provide support and companionship to individuals eligible for palliative care. Communities actively offering this service are Thunder Bay, Geraldton, Longlac, Terrace Bay/Schreiber and Marathon. In the western part of the region, the Kenora/Rainy River District Palliative Care volunteer program offers a hospice volunteer service in the communities of: Kenora, Dryden, Atikokan, Fort Frances, Rainy River ,Emo, Red Lake and Ear Falls .

Hospice volunteers are matched with clients for compatibility in interests, background, culture and language (if possible), age and gender. The role of the volunteer is to supplement the support of family and friends, and to provide compassionate, confidential support to client as well as family caregivers. Hospice volunteers can be accessed in addition to formal services or independently. Referrals can be made by anyone as long as the client is in agreement. Volunteers will follow clients through different settings of care (ie hospital, home, long term care) and will provide bereavement support to family members after death has occurred. Bereavement support is also available to the members of the public who are grieving the death of a loved one.