Motivations for volunteering time with older adults: A qualitative study

Improved health, wellbeing and quality of life are associated with older adults living well at home. Enabling older adults to remain at home requires organisations to consider different workforce models to support these initiatives. Volunteers are often used by organisations providing such services....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-05, Vol.15 (5), p.e0232718-e0232718
Main Authors: Same, Anne, McBride, Hannah, Liddelow, Caitlin, Mullan, Barbara, Harris, Courtenay
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
Elder care
Elderly workers
Health sciences
Interviews
Methods
Occupational therapy
Older people
Organizations
Pathology
People and Places
Psychology
Qualitative research
Quality of life
Recruitment
Research and Analysis Methods
Researchers
Social interactions
Social networks
Social Sciences
Social work
Speech therapy
Studies
Time
Values
Volunteerism
Volunteers
Well being
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Improved health, wellbeing and quality of life are associated with older adults living well at home. Enabling older adults to remain at home requires organisations to consider different workforce models to support these initiatives. Volunteers are often used by organisations providing such services. However, given the changing nature of the volunteer industry, volunteer recruitment and retention practices must be better understood. This study sought to understand individuals' motivations to volunteer in aged care home support. Eighteen volunteers were recruited from not-for-profit aged support organisations in Perth, Western Australia. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and five themes were thematically interpreted: What's Important to Me?, Learning and Growth, Somewhere to Belong, Meet Me in the Middle, and Not Just a Number. Fulfilling volunteers' desires for interest, social connection, self-growth, recognition, and support appeared conducive to positive volunteering experiences. These findings may suggest avenues to capture and retain volunteers in aged care home support.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0232718