Looking for a New Year’s resolution? Why not give volunteering a go?
With the New Year upon us, many people are thinking about doing something new. Volunteering is a great way to help the community, enhance service users’ experience and learn new skills, and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has many different volunteering opportunities available.
Volunteers are “heroes” who carry out an essential support role within NSFT and enrich the experiences of service users.
The Trust’s volunteer co-ordinator Sarah Briggs is looking to build on that throughout 2025 by sharing opportunities for people to get involved.
“We have all kinds of opportunities for volunteers at NSFT from working with older people and helping to run dementia cafes to supporting our perinatal teams and offering expertise in gardening,” said Sarah.
NSFT relaunched its volunteer programme, after a break during the COVID lockdowns, with a new recruitment process and training.
“Volunteers are important at NSFT as they help enrich the experiences of our service users,” said Sarah. “They also help our services run smoothly and allow our staff to spend their time focusing on delivering the best care and support, helping us to build greater connections and reach those people we may not have been able to before.”
Roles include supporting groups in the community or activities on wards which encourage patients to take part. And opportunities are open to people with personal experience of mental health problems, either as a patient or carer.
She said they are looking for people with a passion for volunteering who were kind, compassionate and willing to learn. “People don’t always have to have an in-depth knowledge of mental health or the NHS, they can learn, but communication skills are important as you will spend a lot of time talking to people from different backgrounds who have varying experiences in the NHS.”
There are benefits for the volunteers too, Sarah added: “It can give people confidence and skills to take on new opportunities. There’s the chance to make friends, help with loneliness and improve health and wellbeing. Volunteering can give a chance to try something new, even providing a stepping stone to a new career.”
Sarah Nichols is Safer Care Practitioner and QI Improvement Lead at NSFT and works in older people’s services in Norfolk and Suffolk. She said: “Volunteers are a crucial part in improving patient/relative carer experience through many types of activities. Sometimes patients within the older people’s services, do not have family members that can visit regularly so volunteers in befriending and emotional support roles perform an important and integral role to fill that gap.”
She said volunteers contribute greatly by actively supporting patients/relative/carers working with staff, helping to enhance quality of life, and encouraging the feeling of being fully included, which promotes well-being and recovery. “Volunteers are our heroes, giving freely and generously to the benefit of others,” said Sarah (Nichols).
Older people’s services is one area of the Trust where volunteers are needed to help support carers groups and patient activities alongside staff.
Sarah (Nichols) said: “A monthly dementia/memory café is planned and would support inpatient, community patients and those within the local community who have become isolated and would benefit greatly from this. But we need the help of volunteers to help get this going and keep it running.”
Deputy CEO and chief people officer Cath Byford said: “Our volunteers provide an incredible service in supporting our service users and staff. Their contribution and kindness in all they do cannot be underestimated in helping to make NSFT a safer, kinder and better organisation.”
For more information or to register your interest in any volunteering opportunities, email volunteer@nsft.nhs.uk
Jennifer Manson (Waveney)
Jennifer Manson signed up as a volunteer to “give something back” after receiving support while under services at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.
“I have so much gratitude for the support I received,” she said.
She accessed courses run by NSFT’s Recovery College, which she described as a “life saver”.
“Volunteers are a big part of the delivery of courses, sharing their lived experience of recovery. I learned valuable skills that helped to shape my life to what it is today. I wanted to give something back to the service and this experience inspired my journey to begin volunteering,” she said.
She now harnesses her love of gardening within a group of volunteer gardeners at Carlton Court, near Lowestoft. Carlton Court looks after older people, including those with dementia.
She said: “Along with the commitment, volunteering gives mestructure, a lot of meaning and purpose and hope. My skills and strengths are channelled into making a difference to others, while rediscovering and exploring new ones. It changed the way I see myself; my identity has changed to someone who can. There is a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from seeing others using the garden space I’ve helped to maintain.”
The garden is an accessible welcoming space, divided into themes including a seaside, meadow, an orchard, Mediterranean garden and woodland walk. The garden provides a calm place for service users to sit and share the space with family, friends and carers.
“The garden is designed with a focus on the sights, sounds, textures, smells, and movement that can be experienced, with the use of aromatic herbs and scented flowers to create a rich and stimulating environment to support wellbeing,” she said.
“There is careful consideration taken when planning all aspects of the garden by drawing on the knowledge and experience from members of the garden group, who have cared for someone living with dementia.”
She said volunteering had given her the chance to expand my life socially and make connections within the NSFT community. “I value that sense of belonging and being part of the wider team,” she said.
As well as the gardening, Jennifer volunteers with the Recovery College as a peer tutor, sharing her lived experience of recovery to others on their journey like those who inspired her.
From left: Care support worker Charlotte, Diane Geddes and Misty, senior occupational therapist Taryn Hammersley and Sarah Nichols.
Diana Geddes (East Suffolk)
Diana Geddes is volunteering for NSFT through Pets as Therapy and visiting wards with Misty, her dog.
She said: “I feel I've had an incredibly lucky life, with admittedly lots of bumps and bruises along the way, but lucky all the same. So, there is definitely a feeling that I want to try to bring some cheer or just a brief smile to others less fortunate or who are simply going through a rough patch right now.”
But she also feels it is good for her too. “I've always loved learning from other people, listening to their stories, seeing how they cope with their difficulties and maybe, sometimes, be able to share in the joy, however fleeting, that Misty and I may be able to bring to their lives.”
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