What are the Benefits of Volunteering in Care Homes?
National Care Home Open Day is all about opening up the doors of care homes and welcoming the local community in, helping residents and locals get to know each other, with a sepcific theme for each year. In honour of this we thought we would put together a post about what the benefits are of becoming a volunteer in a care home.
Volunteering in a care home can be an incredibly rewarding thing to do, it can change your perceptions of certain things, and can allow you to build long-lasting friendships with residents of the facility. These are just a few of the benefits of volunteering in a care home, below are a few more reasons that you might want to consider giving some of your spare time to volunteering.
It could lead to a new career
You never know, you might enjoy working in the care sector so much that you start to wonder whether it could become a new career path. If you have always loved the idea of working in the medical industry or within the care sector, volunteering could be the perfect way to find out if you are suited to these types of roles.
You can learn from others
One of the fantastic things about working with seniors is that you can learn a lot from them. Every single day you will hear old stories and learn about new pieces of history - you can learn a lot from older people if you just take the time to listen.
It will put your problems into perspective
Seeing other people’s problems, such as illness like dementia, will help to put your problems into perspective. Those little things you have been worrying yourself silly over will seem far less important when you hear about other people’s problems that are more serious than yours.
You will stay busy
It’s all well and good having spare time but after a while of doing nothing, things can get boring. However, if you choose to spend your spare time volunteering in a care home, you will keep busy and will be able to make the most of your spare time.
You will be helping people
What could be a better use of your spare time than helping others? How many people can say that they use their spare time purely to look after other people? By choosing to volunteer at a care home, whether that’s as someone who reads to the residents, helps with meal times, or does some cleaning, you will be making life better for the residents living at the facility. You will be helping the nurses to manage everything and keep on top of tasks.
It will allow you to build strong friendships
Believe it or not, if you choose to volunteer in a care home, you will have the opportunity to build strong friendships, both with the residents and the nurses. By taking the time to get to know the residents and the nurses, you can begin to build bonds with them, leading to long-term friendships.
