‘A bridge to the hospice’: The impact of a Community Volunteer Programme in Uganda

Abstract

In Africa, the need for palliative care provision is escalating with an increasing number of people living with HIV/AIDS, coupled with rising cancer and AIDS-related cancer diagnoses. In Uganda there is a shortage of doctors, particularly in rural areas. To address this Hospice Africa Uganda developed a Community Volunteer Programme to train volunteers to help by providing support to patients in their own homes. The aim of this qualitative study was to evaluate the impact of the Community Volunteer Programme. Sixty-four interviews, with patients (21), community volunteer workers (CVWs) (32), and the hospice clinical teams (11) were conducted, using semi-structured digitally recorded individual, group and focus group interviews, at the Hospice Africa Uganda sites. The results reported the value of the Community Volunteer Programme, including the impact on patients and families, and how the CVWs acted as a 'bridge to the hospice' in identifying patients. Developing financial challenges that are emerging which could potentially impact on the programme were reported. The Community Volunteer Programme appears to be having a positive impact on patients, families and the hospice team, and is a model worthy of consideration by other developing countries to allow the expansion of palliative care.

Does involving volunteers in the provision of palliative care make a difference to patient and family wellbeing? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence

“…Six of the included studies were of quantitative design (Block et al, 2010;Claxton-Oldfield et al, 2010;Herbst-Damm and Kulik, 2005;Luijkx and Shols, 2009;McGill et al, 1990;Miceli and Mylod, 2003), and two qualitative (Jack et al, 2011;Weeks et al, 2008). One of the quantitative studies also collected qualitative data (Luijkx and Shols, 2009); however we did not include this study in our evaluation of qualitative evidence as we were not certain that the study met qualitative method criteria in that they did not report qualitative analysis.…”

“…Only two studies were undertaken outside of North America (Jack et al, 2011;Luijkx and Shols, 2009). Of the quantitative studies, three were undertaken in the US (Block et al, 2010;Herbst-Damm and Kulik, 2005;Miceli and Mylod, 2003), two in Canada (Claxton-Oldfield et al, 2010;McGill et al, 1990); and one in the Netherlands (Luijkx and Shols, 2009).…”

“…Of the quantitative studies, three were undertaken in the US (Block et al, 2010;Herbst-Damm and Kulik, 2005;Miceli and Mylod, 2003), two in Canada (Claxton-Oldfield et al, 2010;McGill et al, 1990); and one in the Netherlands (Luijkx and Shols, 2009). Of the qualitative studies, one was undertaken in Uganda (Jack et al, 2011) and one in Canada (Weeks et al, 2008). There were no studies conducted in the UK.…”

“…The two qualitative studies differed in sources of data collection and analysis (Jack et al, 2011;Weeks et al, 2008). In one the authors explored the experience of volunteer care of patients and families, and clinical staff (Jack et al, 2011), in the other the experience of bereaved wives whose spouse had received care involving volunteers (Weeks et al, 2008).…”

Volunteers in Specialist Palliative Care: A Survey of Adult Services in the United Kingdom

“…olunteers are integral to palliative care worldwide, including North America, 1,2 Europe, [3][4][5][6] Africa, 7 and India. 8 Global mortality is predicted to rise by between 14% and 42% from 2002 to 2030 9 with many deaths following a period of progressive chronic illness increasing demand for palliative care.…”