Volunteers' Week 2024 - celebrating our volunteers at C&I | News

From Monday 3 to Sunday 9 June, it's Volunteers' Week. This is a nationwide celebration of all those who give their time and energy to various communities and organisations for free. This year, we're actually marking the 40th anniversary of Volunteers' Week!

As part of Volunteers' Week, everyone in the country is welcome to get involved in the Big Help Out. It's a chance to try out different volunteering opportunities local to you between Friday 7 and Sunday 9 June. Click to discover more about it.

As for our Partnership, we have volunteers working in various roles across C&I, coordinated by our Voluntary Services team. There is not currently a volunteering programme at BEH.

Meet our volunteers: Martin

"My name is Martin Delgado. I volunteer at St Pancras Hospital and Highgate Mental Health Centre, and will soon be starting at the new Highgate East unit. I have been a volunteer with C&I since 2016.

"I became interested in mental health while recovering from my own episode of mental illness more than 20 years ago. I have lived in north London for most of my life so when I retired from my job as a newspaper journalist I applied to become a volunteer with C&I.

"My first role was taking the library trolley around the wards — a great opportunity to chat to patients and gain confidence. During lockdown I worked as a delivery driver, taking packed lunches to C&I staff all over north London because it was so difficult for them to get out during their shifts. But now I’m a member of the restraint debrief team. We talk to patients who have had to be physically restrained by staff. Our job is to listen to the patient’s side of the story, try to find out what triggered the crisis, and check that the restraint was carried out in the most humane and least traumatic way possible.

"C&I is a great place to volunteer because it values its volunteers and gives them opportunities to gain knowledge and experience. I attend training courses and seminars alongside doctors, nurses and managers. I have met some fascinating and inspiring people — among both service users, staff and volunteers — as well as making friends along the way.

"We recently did a debrief with a patient who hardly spoke and was tearful. She said her life had lost all meaning following a bereavement. We set aside our template questions about the restraint and just chatted to her for nearly an hour. By the time we left she was much more cheerful and thanked us for coming. 'You had time to spend with me. That really helped,' she said.

Meet Amanda

Amanda Harding is another of our volunteers. She runs ch'i kung sessions (an ancient Chinese practice involving the mind and body) for service users.

Volunteering for me is a great of doing something vocational and inspiring. Everyone benefits from giving back. 

"The ch'i kung sessions bring me so much joy; it's been an uplifting and rewarding experience. It is just so wonderful to hear the laughter and see the smiling faces of clients.

"I've been told they feel calmer and more balanced during and after practice. Some clients also have physical health issues and the gentle movements of ch'i kung seem to alleviate some of their discomfort. 

"I'm so happy to be giving something back to the NHS.

Meet Elizabeth

Elizabeth Saint is a shopping volunteer, who has been going to pick up items for service users at Highgate West since 2022.

Hello, my name is Elizabeth and I go to the shops for the service users to pick up cigarettes, vapes and sometimes super malt.

I started volunteering because I thought it was time for me to give back to the community because of my experience with mental health.

I love the atmosphere of the hospital and wards. I love the friendship when I am there.

My role is very important as some patients don’t get to go out to the shops. It’s also a big responsibility because I must make sure I get the right items to make the service users happy and take their change back to them.

A service user asked me for lots of things one day and I managed to get everything he wanted. That made me happy and him.

From Thursday, we will also be meeting volunteer Helen D'Ambrosio via our regular '60 seconds with...' feature on the intranet and in the bulletin, so do have a read when the time comes.

Most importantly, thank you to all our volunteers

Ana Paladines Palacios is an Occupational Therapy Assistant Practitioner and Wellbeing Advocate at Highgate West and had this to say about her encounters with our volunteers:

I have found working with the volunteer services very helpful and an overall lovely experience. You always see volunteers smiling on the wards and happy to help us with any patient requests. Thank you to all of you in the team for your hard work! A great asset to the Partnership :)

Lilian Irish is the Matron for Coral and Ruby Wards at the Highgate Mental Health Centre and wanted to share her thoughts:

We find the volunteers to be an unbelievably supportive resource for our patients, especially when it comes to meeting needs that have a huge impact on our patient’s experience. All the volunteers I have met truly are amazing people and I personally very thankful for them.

Kirstine McDowall, the Voluntary Services Manager at C&I, echoes Ana's thanks to all of our volunteers for their valuable ongoing contribution to the running of our services.

She also wanted to take the opportunity to point out that the Voluntary Service is not currently taking applications there are 80 people already in the process of starting as new volunteers! Once these 80 people have started in their roles, they will reopen applications — so watch this space!