For a quarter of a century, visitors to hospitals and retirement homes have accompanied patients and residents… But volunteerism is running out of steam.
“Today, we are six. The pandemic hasn’t helped,” says Liliane, head of the Vaurean branch, who is surrounded by Jeannette, Françoise, Brigitte, Carole and Éliane.
Every week, the volunteers go to the hospital’s long-stay unit or the Vrais nursing home to meet patients and residents who sometimes have no other visit. “We are only two or three per establishment. Ideally, there would be ten of us in Lavaur to do everything,” says Liliane.
If in the associative environment, the volunteers “turn”, this activity has difficulty in recruiting new volunteers to replace the departures.
Visiting people who are bedridden and sometimes at the end of their life is certainly not an easy thing, but it is imbued with humanity.
“We feel that they lack affection. Some have no other family and no visitors. We give, of course, but we also receive. explains Françoise. In the unanimous opinion of the visitors, the upcoming periods of July and August are among the most difficult.
On-site entertainment
Before ensuring the visits, the new volunteers make several in pairs with the visitors from the Vaud and then a visit to Albi. It is only then that the person will be the holder of the badge which will allow them to carry out visits alone in the establishments by following the rules of good conduct.
The association of “Visitors of the Sick in Hospital Establishments” is a national federation which was created in 1953… It is also a whole experience which is transmitted in addition to the values by this institution, heir to “the work of the Visiting the Sick in 18th Century Hospitals.
Beyond the visits, the association also organizes activities on the sites such as the arrival of musicians, lottos or the traveling ice cream parlor with a scooter. All this is possible thanks to the financial support of the municipality and neighboring municipalities. But it is above all the voluntary work that is lacking to continue to support an essential association for dozens of elderly, fragile and isolated people.