[Sidney Lanier]

Because of a number of questions I’ve received from fellow TOTVers, I thought to answer these questions on the Non Villages Discussion Forum should anyone else have an interest in the function of two vital volunteer organizations.

Many years ago I was involved with a group of volunteers whose goal was to bring the Hospice movement into our rural area of New York State. I had studied with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, author of On Death and Dying and a number of other related books, and learned how crucial the need for care is dealing with end-of-life issues. We were, as mentioned, all volunteers with no facility to work out of; rather, we worked right in the homes of those who were dying, in some cases living alone though many often with family.

Helping Hands is an organization that Hospice worked closely with. They were often involved in respite care for family members, transportation whether for a patient to get to a medical appointment or hospital or even for grocery shopping for a family member, and such other issues involving general support for chronically- and or terminally-ill individuals and their families. At times their services would be called on in an acute situation, for example, an older, frail person living alone who had had an accident, and while generally able to live independently with some routine support like Meals on Wheels, needed extra support while a fractured hip healed.

Because the voluntarism involved in Hospice and Helping Hands frequently overlapped, in our area we came to be closely interrelated--but only in family situations where there was a specific need. Otherwise, the goal of Hospice was to provide support to dying persons and their families, while Helping Hands provided coordinated ancillary support as well as functioned on their own with persons who were not dying but seriously infirm, especially those living alone.

Here is a brief description of the goals of Helping Hands (whose full name is “Lotsa Helping Hands”) straight from their website (URL: www.lotsahelpinghands.com):

“Lotsa Helping Hands is a simple, immediate way for families facing the challenges of long-term caregiving or caring for an aging loved one to organize and communicate with other family members, friends, and neighbors. It’s an easy-to-use, private group calendar, specifically designed for coordinating visits or help with meals delivery, rides, and other tasks necessary for life to run smoothly. It’s also a place to securely share vital medical, legal, or financial information with designated family members while keeping these ‘circles of community’ informed with status updates, message boards, and more.”

Just as the volunteer Hospice movement has grown and evolved into free-standing facilities and has become more “establishment,” for lack of a better way to put it, now Helping Hands, through the use of the Internet, has become more “sophisticated,” again for lack of a better way to put it, and thus better to coordinate the support its volunteers provide for our infirm, frail, most often elderly neighbors and for their stressed family members if they are not living alone.

TOTV is in a position to serve as a resource in terms of a forum devoted exclusively to the true goals of Helping Hands; some members of our community may well have been Helping Hands volunteers in the areas in which they lived prior to moving to TV. And individuals seeking help for ‘convenience issues’ unrelated to what Helping Hands truly is about have available to them, for example, this Non Villages Discussion Forum where I saw recently a post from someone seeking help with the installation of trailer flooring. It is great that TOTV has forums appropriate for such different kinds of requests for help so that the nature of the needs--crucial versus convenience--don’t have to create confusion.

[renielarson]

Welcome back Sidney. You've been gone too long.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Sidney Lanier

Because of a number of questions I’ve received from fellow TOTVers, I thought to answer these questions on the Non Villages Discussion Forum should anyone else have an interest in the function of two vital volunteer organizations.

Many years ago I was involved with a group of volunteers whose goal was to bring the Hospice movement into our rural area of New York State. I had studied with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, author of On Death and Dying and a number of other related books, and learned how crucial the need for care is dealing with end-of-life issues. We were, as mentioned, all volunteers with no facility to work out of; rather, we worked right in the homes of those who were dying, in some cases living alone though many often with family.

Helping Hands is an organization that Hospice worked closely with. They were often involved in respite care for family members, transportation whether for a patient to get to a medical appointment or hospital or even for grocery shopping for a family member, and such other issues involving general support for chronically- and or terminally-ill individuals and their families. At times their services would be called on in an acute situation, for example, an older, frail person living alone who had had an accident, and while generally able to live independently with some routine support like Meals on Wheels, needed extra support while a fractured hip healed.

Because the voluntarism involved in Hospice and Helping Hands frequently overlapped, in our area we came to be closely interrelated--but only in family situations where there was a specific need. Otherwise, the goal of Hospice was to provide support to dying persons and their families, while Helping Hands provided coordinated ancillary support as well as functioned on their own with persons who were not dying but seriously infirm, especially those living alone.

Here is a brief description of the goals of Helping Hands (whose full name is “Lotsa Helping Hands”) straight from their website (URL: www.lotsahelpinghands.com):

“Lotsa Helping Hands is a simple, immediate way for families facing the challenges of long-term caregiving or caring for an aging loved one to organize and communicate with other family members, friends, and neighbors. It’s an easy-to-use, private group calendar, specifically designed for coordinating visits or help with meals delivery, rides, and other tasks necessary for life to run smoothly. It’s also a place to securely share vital medical, legal, or financial information with designated family members while keeping these ‘circles of community’ informed with status updates, message boards, and more.”

Just as the volunteer Hospice movement has grown and evolved into free-standing facilities and has become more “establishment,” for lack of a better way to put it, now Helping Hands, through the use of the Internet, has become more “sophisticated,” again for lack of a better way to put it, and thus better to coordinate the support its volunteers provide for our infirm, frail, most often elderly neighbors and for their stressed family members if they are not living alone.

TOTV is in a position to serve as a resource in terms of a forum devoted exclusively to the true goals of Helping Hands; some members of our community may well have been Helping Hands volunteers in the areas in which they lived prior to moving to TV. And individuals seeking help for ‘convenience issues’ unrelated to what Helping Hands truly is about have available to them, for example, this Non Villages Discussion Forum where I saw recently a post from someone seeking help with the installation of trailer flooring. It is great that TOTV has forums appropriate for such different kinds of requests for help so that the nature of the needs--crucial versus convenience--don’t have to create confusion.

Sidney, DAVID..........Thank you for being part of such a wonderful effort. What a delight to meet both you and Hyacinth in person.