EAPC Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe 2019

EUROPEAN CONTEXT
Chapter 8. Development of Volunteering in Hospice
and Palliative Care in 15 European Countries
B
TechnicaL data
ON THE 2019 EAPC
SURVEY ON
VOLUNTEERING
Population: 54 countries of the
Europe WHO region and Lichtenstein.
Survey Details
Areas explored: 7 main indicators
on Volunteering: number
of volunteer hospices, people
involved as volunteers in hospices
and Palliative Care services,
systems to track PC volunteers,
training programmes for volunteers,
funds, compassionate
communities, and formal representation
in the national PC
association.
Questionnaire: on line survey, 17
questions, answered in (average):
26 minutes.
Participants: 28 national experts
on PC volunteering: 10 belonging
to the EAPC TF on PC volunteering,
4 from National/local PC
Volunteer Associations, 4 with
PC volunteering publications.
Remaining 10 are PC professionals,
representatives of PC Associations
and Academicians.
Coverage: 15/54 countries
(28%): with two respondents
or more 6/15 countries (40%),
with one respondent 9/15 countries(60%).
Data collection: 12/2018 to
3/2019 (4 months).
Project Management: ATLANTES
Research Group, Institute for Culture
and Society, University of Navarra,
Pamplona (Navarra), Spain .
Scientific Advice: Leena Pelttari
(Austria), Lukas Radbruch
(Germany) and Ros Scott (United
Kingdom).
Promotor: European Association
for Palliative Care (EAPC).
VOLUNTEERING Hospice IS a MAJOR
social and societal change agent.
The European Association for Pal-
LIATIVE Care (EAPC) along with other
global organisations have
been working together TO ADVO-
CATE for the support, recognition,
PROMOTION and development of
VOLUNTEERING in hospice and pal-
LIATIVE care 1 .
In recognition of the crucial role of volunteers
in the care of PC patients and their families,
and in sustaining hospice and palliative
care services, this chapter aims to assess
the current state of Hospice and Palliative Care
(HPC) volunteering in countries in the WHO European
region.
Volunteers providing Palliative Care
The majority of the countries reported not having
an accurate estimation of the number of people
involved as volunteers in hospice or PC services.
However, it is estimated that in Austria, Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland
and UK there are over 1000 volunteers involved in
hospice or PC provision. The Czech Republic, Hungary,
Portugal, Serbia and Armenia register lower
numbers of PC volunteers (less than 500/country).
In some countries, certain hospices and organizations
are only run by volunteers. In Germany for
example, the volunteer sector has over 1300 volunteer
organizations called Ambulanter Hospizdienst
(hospice home services or volunteer hospices
–Box 1). Other countries like Switzerland,
Poland and the Czech Republic also report having
around 30 volunteer hospices in their countries.
Volunteer´ activity is increasingly recognised as an
important part of care, and therefore few countries
report the existence of a system for recording the
volunteer’s activities of Hospices and palliative
care services. Specifically six countries (Austria,
Czech Republic, France, The Netherlands, Romania
and Serbia) report tracking volunteers´ activity
in different ways. Austria, the Netherlands and
Romania report national-level registries, whereas
Carla Reigada, Leena Pelttari, Lukas Radbruch , Ros Scott.
three countries report rather regional or local level
ones. Additionally, six countries have individual
registries namely: the Czech Republic, France,
The Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, and the United
Kingdom.
Training programmes
for volunteers
Training for HPC volunteers is widely provided in
Europe but may differ between countries with
regard to the context/level of training. Except for
Armenia that does not refer any type of training
programme for volunteers in HPC, all European
countries report some sort of training for volunteers.
Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland
report the existence of training programmes for
volunteers at the national, regional, local and specific
(care setting) levels. Eight countries report
training at the national level, five at the regional
level, seven at the local level and eight at the
team or palliative care setting´ level.
Funds for Hospices and Palliative
Care Volunteers activities
Funding to support the activities of volunteers
in PC varies overall in its very existence, as well
as in which institution is responsible. European
countries get funds mostly from donations (12
countries) or grants (9 countries). While Portugal
and Belgium do not report receiving any
type of funding to support volunteers´ activities
in HPC, countries like Austria, France, Germany,
The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Switzerland,
and Czech Republic report that their respective
government sponsors some of the volunteering
activities in HPC. Still differences are reported
with funded activities (sometimes only training),
with responsible bodies for administering funds
(sometimes the very service allocates some funding),
and even with regard to in-country funding
homogeneity (differences by in-country regions).
EAPC Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe
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