Maidstone

Our older adults ward is looking for people to come in and spend an hour or two with patients – chatting, playing games, someone they can look forward to, plus a whole host of other social activities. Some of our patients may not have family or friends who can visit them and so it can be a lonely experience. What you would bring is kindness, companionship, and a friendly face and someone they can talk to

Our Detox Unit in Maidstone have a large 'green space' that is greatly enjoyed by residents. There are lawn areas, flower borders, a pond, and some wooden features.

What they are looking for is someone who can come along and help upkeep these areas. Activities will include mowing, painting, gardening and a wide variety of grounds maintenance activities. You would be welcome to bring your own skills and flair to the space as well.

This will be self-directed work so you will need to know what you are doing and have relevant experience.

There is the possibility of working alongside residents of the unit if you would be comfortable with this, though it's not essential.

The Detox Unit is resident to service users with drug and alcohol addictions who are in recovery so you will need to be comfortable and happy in that environment.

We are looking for someone to assist with our sports and physical activity session at our hospital in Maidstone. You will volunteer alongside a member of the occupational therapy team, helping support mental health patients with sport and physical activity. This is relatively mild activity, but is useful for promoting wellbeing and physical health. Activities take place indoors and outside, depending on the activity and weather.

You will be volunteering in a mental health setting so you will need to be comfortable with that, patient, understanding, and non-judgemental.

Our Occupational Therapy team run a walking group for our patients in Maidstone. Volunteers are required to help run these groups. You will be volunteering alongside staff and will be there to talk to patients and engage with them in friendly chat and to help them enjoy the experience.

The walks are gentle but can be on trackways. Just as important as the exercise is for patients to enjoy being in the countryside and to engage with the sights, sounds, and smells. Breaks are taken as necessary.

Patients are residents on our acute wards and can sometimes display challenging symptoms, so you will need to be patient, caring, understanding, and non-judgmental.

You will be volunteering alongside our occupational therapy team at our forensic mental health unit in Maidstone or Folkestone.
Our patients find such activities to be of great benefit and help them relax.

Sessions last about an hour and generally take place in the afternoons, but times and days can be adapted to suit you.
You will need to have a relevant qualification or proven track record in this activity.

You will be helping to support the café manager, preparing snacks and light lunches, drinks, taking orders from customers and helping keep the area clean.

We are looking for volunteers who would like to be part of the team that helps keep our wonderful Willow Gardens in Maidstone a beautiful and relaxing space for staff and patients.

Willow Gardens is part of our forensics service and is used by staff and patients – for relaxing and also as a therapeutic environment. It is home to many plants and trees and also has animals including goats, chickens, and rabbits.

What we need are people who love the environment and can help maintain the quality of the garden, help to improve biodiversity, and keep the area neat and tidy.

Activities could include looking after the animals (keeping them clean, fed and watered), it might include helping occupational therapy staff to do green space activities with patients (although you don’t have to if you don’t wish), there may be light maintenance work (putting in plant beds, etc), as well as a range of gardening and conservation activities.

Our Our Forensics unit in Maidstone require a volunteer who could work with patients on simple woodwork projects – making bird boxes and other simple projects.

These kinds of activities bring peace and calm to patients, and a sense of achievement when they see the results. You will be volunteering alongside our Occupational Therapy team, but providing the specialist knowledge and skills for the group. Days and times are flexible.

You will be volunteering alongside people who have a mental health diagnosis so you will need to be patient, understanding, and non-judgmental.

This will be once a week and you will be expected to ensure the trolley is stocked with a good variety of books, keep a record of what books are where, engage with patients to encourage them to read and to feedback to us if patients have any specific reading requirements.

You need to be a friendly person, chatty and encouraging. You don’t need any great literary knowledge, just a willingness to help people with a friendly smile.

Physical health is just as important as mental health and the two go hand in hand. You will volunteer alongside our Occupational Therapy team to assist elderly patients with gentle exercises – things such as standing and sitting exercises, gentle walks around the garden, stretching, gentle games (e.g. ‘ring tossing’), plus other activities. The Occupational Therapy team lead the sessions but some of our elderly patients may need someone beside them to give added support.

Some of our patients on our older adults ward may have dementia and Alzheimer's and so it’s important for them to be able to remember and recall their lives and personal history. As a Memory Volunteer you will work alongside the Occupational Therapy team to talk to patients about their lives and history, maybe using pictures and music, or quizzes, to help keep those memories alive. You could either work directly with a specific patient or maybe help with whoever needs you most at the time.

Our Older Adults team are looking for volunteers to help with a variety of ward based activities on our Older Adults ward. It could involve anything – maybe helping with an arts and crafts session, a music appreciation session, gardening, walking, chatting and playing games. Or maybe you have a hobby and interest you’d like to share with others. It could be wide-ranging and varied. You will volunteer alongside our occupational therapy teams, assisting elderly patients to take part in ward activities. The most useful things you will need will be a kind personality, patience, and a smile.

If music be the food of love…
Music lovers are needed to help on our Older Adult ward with a music group. You don’t need to be able to play an instrument but if you have you can that'd be great. You will volunteer alongside occupational therapy staff and other ward staff to deliver the music therapy sessions to patients offering personal support to patients who need help. This could involve listening to music, looking at CDs to prompt discussion, or music based activities (e.g. quizzes), and interacting and collaborating with patients in group sessions. These help our elderly patients with memory recollection exercises. In return we offer a full induction, training and support. Oh, and a thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable volunteering experience!

Our forensics service in Maidstone has a lovely coffee shop where patients and staff all go to relax, chat, have a drink, and listen to music. They have a space there that they would like to open up to small group activities with patients. What they are interested in is hearing from people who have a hobby or interest they would like to share with small groups of patient (3 or 4). It could be anything. It might a craft activity, doing crosswords and having a chat, maybe a knitting group, boardgames, potting plants (there’s a feral herb garden just outside!) discussions, a reading group. It really could be anything at all – if you’ve got an interest then we want to hear about it. There will be staff present to support. If you have something you think you’d like to share in a relaxed, informal, friendly, and cooperative environment then we’d love to hear from you.