10 Thursday, May 27, 2021
Coastal View News • Carpinteria, California
Supporting the community with Compassionate Care When Compassionate Care of Carpinteria, an initiative of Hospice of Santa Barbara, began serving the Carpinteria community in 2017, Sue Willner saw this as the perfect opportunity to combine her medical background with her passion to give back. Willner and her husband Art moved to Carpinteria 20 years ago and have been supporting and volunteering for Carpinteria organizations ever since. Art had already been serving as a Hospice of Santa Barbara volunteer since the spring of 2015, so when Compassionate Care of Carpinteria announced its first volunteer training, Willner was one of the first to sign up. Located at the Carpinteria Children’s Project site, Compassionate Care of Carpinteria (CCC) offers the same array of services as Hospice of Santa Barbara, but specifically directed to the local Carpinteria community. All services are completely free of charge and are available to any individual grieving the loss of a loved one or struggling with terminal illness. Children, teens, adults and families who are facing life-threatening illnesses or are coping with grief receive free counseling, practical care services and/or medical navigation services. In this Q & A with Willner, the volunteer extraordinaire talks about her experience as a CCC patient care volunteer. How long have you been a Compassionate Care of Carpinteria patient care volunteer and what kinds of services do you provide? Sue Willner: I have been a volunteer with Compassionate Care of Carpinteria for
“Being a Compassionate Care of Carpinteria Hospice volunteer means that you are always working to manage the challenges others are going through.”
Sue Willner was one of the first volunteers at Compassionate Care of Carpinteria. three years and have had many different roles and responsibilities supporting our local hospice patients, their families, our communities and the Hospice of Santa Barbara organization. Not surprisingly, the way we did things pre-Covid-19 is quite different from the way we have
fulfilled our roles in the last 15 months. Person-to-person contact morphed into phone conversations, texts and emails as well as masked social-distanced interchanges outside front doors. Prior to March 2020, I supported the wife of a hospice patient by taking her out for walks, lunches and errands, helping her during the last months of her husband’s life and then for the 6 months following, to support her in her time of grieving. Together, we talked, laughed, cried and spoke often of the love we have for our children and grandchildren. This time away gave her respite from her very demanding caregiving. During the pandemic, I have delivered food to patients, their families and other community members, and interviewed and recorded a patient’s Life Reminiscences. Life Reminiscence is a program for patients where volunteers capture life stories in a journal or video format that are presented to patients in a book form or final video. I’ve reached out by phone to patients and community members who have been isolated. I’ve shopped and have done errands for patients. Above all, I have been a support for whatever is needed, as people (all of us) go through these life challenges and changes. What does a typical volunteer day involve? There is no typical day; every day and activities can vary from week to week. Some days I will be in touch with my clients via phone, some days via text, some days via e-mail. Some days I shop and deliver food, some days I support our Hospice organization in whatever they need. I stay flexible and ready to respond. What has been most challenging about your volunteer service during Covid-19? Being a Compassionate Care of Carpinteria Hospice volunteer means that you are always working to manage the challenges others are going through. Certainly, COVID has added the additional “challenge” of finding new ways to support people while not being in physical contact. I have been amazed how
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meaningful communication can proceed without direct face-to-face contact. What kind of feedback do you get from those you serve through your volunteer work? This is a win-win situation. I try to give support wherever it is needed at the moment it is needed. As a consequence, our clients are so appreciative and grateful that these relationships quickly become very deep and meaningful. Sweet is my word to describe my experience with Compassionate Care of Carpinteria clients; I think they feel the same. Can you share a specific experience that was particularly meaningful? I spent six weeks interviewing a hospice patient who wanted to record her life’s memories to give to her family. As her story unfolded, it became obvious that she had had many tragic moments that she had not faced but over these weeks of talking, she was now facing them head on. When I presented her with a record of her own words, she realized she didn’t want to hurt her family who might read them. A woman of great faith, she didn’t want to hurt anyone who might read about her difficult life. So together we deleted most of the words and pages we had just spent many hours documenting. From this I learned that the most important thing was the process of contemplating and facing what had happened and that the process is often more important than the outcome. Patient care volunteers have started transitioning back to in person care. Volunteers are visiting with patients when both the patient and the volunteer have provided their vaccination record. With proof of vaccination, they are visiting outside with masks on. They are also providing transportation to appointments/ treatments with masks on. As the county enters into less restrictive tiers, Compassionate Care of Carpinteria will continue to loosen these requirements. For information about receiving Compassionate Care of Carpinteria services or to volunteer, call (805) 679-6090
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