Warrnambool and District Community Hospice plans to have an in-home program up and running from July 13.

Eighteen of the program’s first crop of volunteers are currently in training and new manager Tam Vistarini has been appointed to co-ordinate the service.

Warrnambool and District Community Hospice president Eric Fairbank said once qualified, the program’s volunteers would be well-equipped to help patients and their families.

“We’re training up our volunteers so they can assist both in the care of the patient and in the care of the family. 

“The idea is that if we’re there then the family can take a break, get a decent night’s sleep or go away for the weekend,” he said.

“This will hopefully stop people who end up in hospital for social reasons rather than medical ones, people who end up in hospital because they don’t want to be a burden and the family are exhausted. 

“This is a gap that we saw in the existing services. There’s a very good existing palliative care service but they don’t go and stay in people’s homes for any length of time. We are going to stay.”

Ms Vistarini, a trained palliative care volunteer herself, said the program would fill an important need.

“Most people express a wish to die at home and most people aren’t able to,” she said.

“The carers just become exhausted. They just can’t cope.”

Dr Fairbank said the program had attracted an enthusiastic volunteer workforce. 

“We’ve got a mix of current nurses and ex-nurses and lay people who have had personal experiences and two psychologists,” he said.

“They’re doing the Palliative Care Victoria training course. In addition to that we’re teaching them some hands-on skills such as how to get people out of bed.

“It was a fairly stringent selection process. They wrote letters of application and they were interviewed. We’ve ended up with a fabulous bunch of people.”

Dr Fairbank said from early July hospice volunteers would be able to assist families in the care of a loved one in their last few weeks of life.

“It’s about keeping people comfortable when there is no more cure available,” he said.

Dr Fairbank expects most referrals will come from the palliative care service, although referrals from GPs and families will also be welcome.

The free service, believed to be the only one of its kind in Australia, will operate in the Warrnambool area for terminally ill adults regardless of their diagnosis.