FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

02-27-09 950AM

Why not consider changing the life of a senior in your community? The Caring Hands Volunteer Caregivers Program is need of volunteers who can give one to three hours a week to help a senior.

Caring Hands creates “matches” between caring volunteers and isolated, lonely and often disabled seniors who are trying to remain independent and in their own homes as long as possible. Volunteers provide free non-medical in-home assistance. Services offered include friendly visiting and companionship; transportation to medical appointments and other needed services; assistance with errands, and grocery shopping. Services are provided free of charge to the senior and you don’t have to be a patient of John Muir Health to give or receive services.

When volunteers commit to Caring Hands they choose the services they would like to perform, the communities where they serve, and make their own schedule. There is a need for volunteers who speak Spanish as well. Occasional or substitute drivers are also needed.

The next volunteer training session is set for Friday, March 13, 2009, from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Summerset 4 in Brentwood. An interview and pre-registration by March 9 is required. For more information or to register, please call 925-952-2999.

“Caring Hands volunteers often say that they receive more than they give,” says Linda Groobin, volunteer coordinator for Caring Hands. “That is what makes the program so special – the connection that is forged between the volunteer and care receiver.”

The Caring Hands Volunteer Caregivers Program is a collaborative effort of John Muir Health, congregations of various religious faiths, representatives from social service agencies, and the community-at-large. Caring Hands volunteers serve isolated, and/or disabled seniors over the age of 60 free of charge in East, Central and South Contra Costa County.

###