Around 20 volunteers in the Pontiac Hospital’s palliative care unit were recognized on Thursday with a brunch and visit to Pine Lodge’s sugar shack, organized by Outaouais regional health authority CISSSO.

Palliative care volunteers, who receive a training course and must complete a background check with the health authority before being allowed in the hospital, are there as an aid to the patients and do many things including getting them water, blankets, food, or just giving them a hand to hold as their days grow dim.

Certain volunteers can also play a role in medically-assisted death procedures by helping family members grieve.

Rick Valin and his wife Carole have been volunteering for about 10 years in palliative care, and are co-coordinators for the unit’s volunteers. Rick said although they often recruit new volunteers and fill training courses hosted three times a year, it is still a struggle to find people to lend a hand.

“Covid hit us hard. We lost a third of our members, because they weren’t expected to come to the hospital when it was full of covid, and it was dangerous, and then they aged out,” he said.

Carolyne Slater, head of volunteer resources with CISSSO who was also there to celebrate the volunteers, said it’s difficult finding people to lend a hand as many of them, especially in the Pontiac, are aging.

“It’s hard to find volunteers,” said Slater. “Especially younger volunteers. Most of our volunteers are older,” she said, adding that has been an ongoing issue despite repeated attempts to get the message out to younger volunteers.

The Valins said they were grateful the CISSSO takes the time twice a year to recognize their accomplishments, and it makes them feel appreciated.

“It might not seem like much for them, but for us, it’s a lot. And considering the cutbacks that are happening right now, it’s pretty nice that they still find the time and money,” Rick said.

THE EQUITY spoke with a few of these volunteers to understand why they choose to give their time to the palliative care unit. Here are a few of their stories, in their own words.

Rick and Carole Valin

Rick and Carole Valin are co-coordinators for volunteers at the Pontiac Hospital’s palliative care unit, a job they both started doing about 10 years ago when their friend Shirley Green asked them to consider taking it over. Rick, a former full-time teacher at Pontiac High School, helps certain patients and their families during the medically-assisted death (MAID) process.

Carole: Rick was in it first, and a lot of times he couldn’t do a shift. And I thought, ‘Well, isn’t that too bad? I should be able to,’ but I had to take the course. I didn’t know if I was really cut out for that, but I took the course and knew right away that it was something I wanted to do. I’ve always said that nobody should ever die alone. So that was my big driving force behind it. I’ve lost family members, but not palliative, mostly accidents.

Rick: Now we practice MAID (medical assistance in death) at the hospital, so our clients have been sensitized to the MAID process, and we try to help them through the process. The people who are involved in terms of administering the final passing of the person are incredibly sensitive and empathetic, but there’s a huge range of reactions to it. Some people who are members of the family just don’t want to let go. There’s a room right beside ours, which we call a chapel. It’s multi-faith, and it’s a meditation room. Sometimes we’ll just go out there and let people vent.

It’s part of our religious belief, it’s pastoral care. You’ll find most of the people here are of religious orientation and see it as part of their role as being a Christian. We’re United, but we have Anglicans, we have Catholics. Every church in the Pontiac is kind of represented on our team.

Carole: It’s amazing how some people have wanted to do things like [volunteer], but they just didn’t know where to start, and all it takes is a little something to ask themselves ‘What if I was in the same boat?’ and then see if [they] can do it or not. What we’re finding is people who experience the passing of a loved one, a couple years later they get in contact with us and say, ‘I’m ready to do this.’

Rick: We give a lot, but we get more back from it. It’s really weird, we live in the Pontiac, you know everybody. It’s pretty likely that if the three rooms are full, you know at least one of the three families. You feel better because you’re able to support somebody that you already have a relationship with, and it’s harder because it’s somebody you know. Sometimes I’ve taught their kids, and in some cases, I’ve taught the person who is passing away, that’s a little difficult.

Carole: And I always have a little cry, and after I do then I’m okay. The nurses have often said to me, ‘You don’t have to finish your shift,’ and I said ‘No, I’ll be fine,’ but it’s just that if you know the people, you see them coming in, it just hits you harder. And then I have my cry, and I’m okay. But that’s got to come out, I guess, that’s human nature.

Joyce McCleary Binder

Joyce McCleary Binder has spent the past 17 years volunteering at the Pontiac Hospital’s palliative care unit, the very same facility where she herself received cancer treatments in 2008. When she took the volunteer course the next year, she specifically chose to volunteer in the Shawville palliative care unit, and is proud to say she always works a double shift, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m, once a week.

I’m a cancer survivor. I had several surgeries in 2008, and after one of them I woke up in the palliative care unit as an overflow patient. So the unit was relatively new, and I was told it was the only bed in the hospital. And when I figured out what the unit was, I said, ‘You know, I would like to do that.” After taking the volunteer course I started right away.

I tell my patients’ families, or the patient themselves, [I can help with] anything they don’t need a nurse for. So I can just sit with them. I can be an ear to listen. I can read to them. I can sit and hold their hand. Some shifts I do very little because they have family with them, so I let the family know if there’s something they need that they don’t need a nurse for, please consider it.

I vividly remember one of the first patients that I sat with, I finished my five o’clock shift, I phoned my hubby and said, ‘Bob, I’m not coming home for a while. Don’t wait up for me.’ And this was a guy who had no family, no friends, and had never seen a visitor. But I knew that probably before midnight, he was going to pass. So I closed up things on my desk, I went in, and I sat beside him. I sat and held his hand, and I talked to him. I can still feel the feeling that I felt when he passed; it was like walking on air, and I said ‘He didn’t die alone?’

I had heard of people dying alone, and I thought, that is so sad. But if I can bring a little bit of comfort to anybody, it’s just a good feeling.

Sandra Rutledge-Barber

Sandra Rutledge-Barber has been volunteering in the palliative care unit for two years, but she originally took the course to tend to her terminally-ill husband at home. Now, she volunteers four hours of her time every week to the hospital, and has referred at least two new people to take the volunteer course.

I’m only two years into volunteering. My mother was in palliative care, and I stayed with her at nighttime at the hospital, and I was with her when she passed away. I found my brother-in-law dead at home, and my husband died Nov. 2023, and he was in palliative care.

So by taking the palliative care course, I could look after him at home, and he didn’t have to go to the hospital, which he didn’t want to go to. It was hard watching him be in pain, and he had his mind made up that he would only take his pain medicine when he wanted to take it. So I said, ‘You tell me when you want it, and I’ll give it to you.’ So then he felt more that he was in control of the last days of his life.

At palliative care, it’s so nice when you go to a room and you knock on the door and say, ‘If you want ice water, tea, coffee, just let me know and I’ll get it for you.’ When somebody passes you’re there, and if they want coffee, you go get a little snack for them and let the family spend as much time as they want with their loved one before they leave.

It’s hard, but when you’re there and the people show appreciation for what you’re doing, you feel that it’s worthwhile. Sometimes, there’s people [in palliative care] and nobody goes in to visit them. So you’re checking on them, you’ll get a nurse and say ‘I think you’d better come and check on that person, so they’re not going to die by themselves.

One [pair of family members] asked what palliative was about, and I explained. They said they were interested, so I gave them Rick Valin’s phone number and said ‘When you’re up to it, give them a phone call.’ Both sisters said ‘Both of us are interested,’ so I said, ‘That might be two new recruits’. As we get older, we may not be able to keep on [volunteering], but at least this way we know somebody else is coming up behind us to take over our jobs.

Anyone who is interested in volunteering in palliative care can get in touch with Carole and Rick Valin at 819-647-5609 or at thevalins@hotmail.com.