{"id":5624,"date":"2016-10-11T12:18:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T01:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/?p=5624"},"modified":"2016-10-11T12:25:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T01:25:23","slug":"ward-grandparent-program-volunteer-josie-shares-her-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/ward-grandparent-program-volunteer-josie-shares-her-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Ward Grandparent Program – Volunteer Josie shares her experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cNobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.<\/em>\u201d – Alex Haley, American author and journalist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grandparents play a special role in many young lives, but for some of our patients and families, the support of a grandparent is not always available. So, to help out we have some substitute \u2018grandparents\u2019 ready to step in.<\/p>\n

\"Ward
Ward Grandparent Josie Gledhill with baby Layla<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our Ward Grandparents are volunteers, who, like Josie Gledhill, are sometimes not technically grandparents themselves.<\/p>\n

With her two boys in primary school, Josie said she missed interacting with children. She became a Ward Grandparent in February after hearing about the program from a friend who worked at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like what else can I do?\u201d Josie said. \u201cI\u2019m not ready to go back into the workforce, so this is something where I can be of value in the community and do something with my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Ward Grandparent is a specially-trained volunteer who spends quality one-on-one time with a hospitalised child, helping their psychological health and wellbeing, while also supporting parents or carers during periods of hospitalisation.<\/p>\n

As her first experience in a volunteering role, Josie said gaining the trust of a new family was a humbling experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually feel really honoured when I meet people and have the families feel OK with you,\u201d Josie said.\u00a0 \u201cYou have to be really kind, caring and understand that it\u2019s not about what you want or how you see things, but it\u2019s what you can offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ward
Ward Grandparent Josie Gledhill with baby Layla and her parents Aleisha and Andrew<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ward Grandparents work with the parents or carers to arrange days and times for interaction and support.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, we can do three days a week and a maximum of three hours in those days,\u201d Josie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about what\u2019s going to suit the parents and what puts them at ease.\u00a0These people are in a stressful situation, and so you need to be able to put yourself back and understand you\u2019re there to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what she loved about the role, Josie said seeing a patient and family go home was a highlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need to be able to say goodbye, and that\u2019s the best outcome,\u201d Josie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have them leave is brilliant. That\u2019s why I\u2019m here, for when they\u2019re at the hospital and I\u2019m a service.<\/p>\n

“The best thing is when they can go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in this program or would like more information on how to apply to be a Ward Grandparent Volunteer, visit the RCH\u2019s\u00a0How to Become a Volunteer<\/a>\u00a0page.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grandparents play a special role in many young lives, but for some patients, the support of a grandparent is not always available. To help out we have some substitute \u2018grandparents\u2019 ready to step in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":5625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8971,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5624"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5642,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5624\/revisions\/5642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rch.org.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}