With summer beginning to feel like a distant glimmer, we welcome so many new volunteers to the team and as always love to see those familiar faces. As you will read we have exciting volunteering opportunities afoot and our wards are excited to be welcoming volunteers into their teams.

I would like to thank you all for your precious gift of time.

Anne-Marie Stevens-Swain Voluntary Services Manager

Return of Meet and Greet

At the start of the COVID-19 lockdown this role became known as the HUB. Volunteers took thousands of items of patients' property to them on the wards, handed out many masks and walked millions of steps!

Now this role will be returning back to its original title of “meet and greet” - supporting the front entrance, giving directions and taking patients to their appointments along with supporting ongoing clinics. We are looking for people to support in this role. For more information on this role and many others see Volunteering - Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (mtw.nhs.uk)

We are currently recruiting new volunteers until the 16 October. With a huge range of roles at both sites There has never been a better time to join the MTW volunteers’ team, we are always interested in promoting volunteering within the community and would love your support to do this. If you know any individuals or community groups that would be interested in volunteering please share the link below.

Volunteering - Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (mtw.nhs.uk)

We are pleased to be able start delivery of the National Volunteer Certificate. This is a great addition to any CV showing dedication and a range of skills, from confidence to a wide skills platform, transferable to many roles and careers.

In order to gain the National Volunteer Certificate, you need to complete two things. First the Volunteer’s Passport (via MTW learning) and secondly, to complete 60 hours of volunteering logged on Better Impact.

Guides to completing both elements are available on Better Impact – found under ‘documents’, once you have finished both, please send to mtw-tr.volunteers@nhs.net

Here is a small animation which provides an overview of all things NVC, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2w44fq7W74

Chaplaincy volunteers are there to support our hospital chaplains, to provide a listening ear, emotional support and spiritual support to patients, relatives and friends, and hospital staff.

The chaplains are involved in a wide range of work and can provide support during a crisis as well as during ongoing recovery. They will also support bereaved family members if required. Chaplaincy volunteers are required to keep up with both hospital training and chaplaincy training. Volunteers usually are assigned to a particular ward or area, which has the additional benefit of getting to know staff and patients on a regular basis. You don’t have to be a practising believer to use this service.

What advice would you give anyone who is considering volunteering?  If we have learnt anything from recent experiences, it must be the huge value of person- to-person contact. The essence of a volunteer is to be with people, to support them, to listen to them, come alongside them and to be with them so they know that they are not alone.

The Voluntary Services Team have a new space! We can be found between the purple and pink zones at Maidstone Hospital on the ground floor. This space includes volunteer lockers, a cupboard full of mugs, tea and coffee so you can drop in anytime and grab a cuppa, as well as a small private outside area and IT volunteers to provide support for completing online training and activities.

Once are settled in there will be an open house and we will contact you once the dates are arranged.

We will also be holding a welcome morning at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in the Wellbeing Lounge - a date will be confirmed soon!

We are delighted to welcome the newest member of the Voluntary Services Team, Peter Anderson, who has recently started in the role of End of Life Coordinator.

”MTW’s new SWAN (End of Life) volunteer service is a great initiative and I'm really proud to be part of it from the start. There will be lots to do to set things up, not least getting together a team of volunteers whose kindness and compassion will make the difference. Over the last six years I’ve had a variety of roles at MTW and as well as being a volunteer for other emotional-support services. My aim is to ensure that together we will make participation in this service a rewarding experience for everyone.” Peter Anderson

Why Swans?

Swan packs have become part of the MTW bereavement process over the last few years and the term original stood for Signs, Words, Actions and Needs as part of an end of life campaign.

Swans in mythology have often been associated with the end of life, from the Germanic myth of the Valkyries turning into swans to the Greek stories of Leda turned to a swan in death. To Aristotle in his book history of animals saying that swans “are musical, and sing chiefly at the approach of death.”

The Ann Robson Trust is an amazing charity that will be supporting Peter and the Voluntary Services team in delivering end of life volunteers. The charity believes that no one deserves to die alone and that everyone should have the comfort and companionship of another human being as they die, and the support to prepare for the end of their life. There is a desperate need for support for those who are dying and those who love them, who may feel frightened, isolated and have no one to turn to. There’s also a huge need for better conversations about death, before we come to the end. Click here to read more about the work of the Anne Robson Trust.

I wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge, whopping and MASSIVE thank you to all our wonderful volunteers at MTW who have given their time selflessly to help our patients. Many of you I know and have worked with, some I know not so well, but each and everyone of you are amazing individuals and we couldn’t do our jobs without you!

As I move on to my next job as Associate Director of Patient Experience, I will look back on my time at MTW with fondness but most of all, how privileged I was to work with you all. Simply….. thank you!

I am the new interim Patient Experience Lead at MTW, and I will be taking over from Nikki Lewis in October. I am very excited to be working with you all and supporting the amazing work you do. Providing a first class experience for the people who use our services, and supporting staff and our volunteers to do this has always been a passion of mine. I will be leading on a number of projects to support the patient experience agenda including FFT, AIS, patient engagement and patient partners. In my spare time I own a classic racing green Mini Cooper called Eve, and I recently drove her round the race circuit at Brands Hatch!  I look forward to meeting you all over the coming months.