Dilemmas in the use of volunteers to provide hospice bereavement support: Evidence from New Zealand.

Payne, S. A. (2002) Dilemmas in the use of volunteers to provide hospice bereavement support: Evidence from New Zealand. Mortality, 7 (2). pp. 139-154. ISSN 1357-6275

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Abstract

This paper seeks to explore the tension between professionalization and volunteerism in health care. It focuses on the role of volunteers who provide bereavement support services within hospices and palliative care services. The paper draws on evidence from a study of hospice bereavement volunteers conducted in New Zealand. Interviews with 34 co-ordinators, and questionnaires completed by 121 volunteers, from 26 hospices, provided data about the role played by bereavement support volunteers. Differences in the perspectives of co-ordinators and volunteers highlight the tensions between a professionalizing ethos and lay understandings of bereavement. Broader social factors, including the restricted social diversity among volunteers, the perceived value of the lived experience of loss relative to other sources of knowledge, cultural patterns of grief and mourning and asymmetrical power relationships between paid professionals and volunteers, affect how bereavement support services are planned and implemented. This paper proposes that a better conceptual understanding of the role of volunteers in helping others deal with loss and grief is needed.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Mortality
Additional Information:
This paper resulted from a Winston Churchill Fellowship. RAE_import_type : Journal article RAE_uoa_type : Social Work and Social Policy & Administration
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3306
Subjects:
?? health(social science)religious studiesphilosophyr medicine (general) ??
ID Code:
3352
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
19 Mar 2008 11:21
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 11:00