Volunteering

This is an exciting opportunity for individuals to assist the ongoing work bridging the gap with the health inequalities faced by the Armed Forces community.

Do you want to make a real difference to the lives of the military community? We are looking for individuals with strong people skills, who can work as part of a growing Armed Forces Programme team in Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

As part of this role, you will be assisting with the support of armed forces and veteran patients along with providing support to the armed forces staff and families across the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Trust Hospitals, London. This involves canvassing the wards for armed forces, reservists, veterans and their families as service users in the hospitals.

The applicant would ideally be an armed forces veteran or part of the armed forces family with a passion for helping this community.

The volunteer will play a valuable role in supporting patients and their relatives during their stay in the High Dependency Unit (HDU). They will work alongside a team whose priority is to make sure the patient is receiving high quality and compassionate care. In an often fast paced and technical environment, the volunteers will focus on communication and personal interaction, to enhance the patient’s experience and promote recovery.

This is a unique environment to volunteer in. It is a busy and rewarding environment with the volunteering role providing a valuable contribution to patient experience. Volunteers do however need to have an awareness of their own emotional strengths and weaknesses.

 Some patients may have tracheostomies or tube attachments and some may be approaching the end of their life. Although volunteers would never be involved in ‘clinical’ activities they must be able to function in this environment sensitively and comfortably.

You must meet the following criteria to apply: 

• Must be over 18 years of age
• No recent close bereavement in intensive care/high dependency
• Able to communicate sensitively and appropriately with people in distress and in challenging situations 
• Skills in active listening
• Able to use basic functions on iPads/e-tablets 
• Treating all patients equally with dignity and respect regardless of their viewpoints or personal preferences
• To be able to quickly identify an appropriate member of staff to whom to refer clinical questions and resist answering such questions personally
• To demonstrate a positive ‘can-do’ approach to the role
• Good time keeping and reliable attendance
• Clear understanding of the boundaries of their role and to liaise with clinical staff before commencing activities with patients
• Able to speak up with any concerns
• Demonstrates a high level of understanding of patient confidentiality. 

This role would particularly suit someone who is currently studying healthcare or is looking to study health care or has recently retired from a health care role.

Commitment Required: 

Minimum three hours per week organised on a rota basis with a team of volunteers to cover: Monday-Sunday 11am-7pm.

Tasks and Activities: 

Checks:

The following checks will be carried out by the Voluntary Services Team: enhanced DBS, references, occupational health screening and on line induction. 

Interview Dates and Training

Due to staff capacity we will need to schedule in the interviews in advance.  If you are selected for interview (in person on the St Thomas Hospital site)  the dates we will be offering you are:

Thurs 26th  Nov at 11.00 am

Mon 30th Nov at 5.30 pm

Tues 1st Dec at 2.00 pm.

Only candidates short listed will be invited for interview.  You will be informed if you have or have not been shortlisted when recruitment closes. 

You will need to be able to attend a half day training course before you can start this role.  This has been scheduled for Thursday 21st Jan 2027 - you must be able to attend this training and there are no other options.  

When you apply for this role please indicate that you will be available for the intervie dates (at least one) and the training date of the 21st Jan 2027. 

ARMED FORCES COMMUNITY VOLUNTEER

Our Armed Forces Programme team are looking for volunteers to join them who would be able to travel across Lambeth and Southwark to help reach out to people in the communities the Trust serves to raise awareness to Veterans and their families of the support and services that are available to them from the GSTT Armed Forces Programme and the GSTT Armed Forces Community Drop-in.

You would help in identifying and then visiting places and clubs Veterans and their families use in our community including but not limited to GSTT community nursing and health teams, health centres, primary care networks and GP surgeries.  You would also be welcome to assist in the running of the monthly GSTT Armed Forces Community Monthly Drop-in service.

This role would suit individuals who are passionate about advocating for the Armed Forces Community and ideally have links to HM Armed Forces.  You will need to be confident and able to build rapport quickly with a diverse group of people in different settings.  You will need excellent communication skills and have the admin skills to capture and report personal information and referrals to the Armed Forces Programme Team.

You will be given training and support from the Armed Forces Programme Team.  Reasonable travel expenses will be available but if you have a travel or freedom card that allows free or reduced travel that would an advantage for the project. 

If you are interested in this role please apply and if we feel you are suitable we will contact you with an offer of an informal interview to give us an opportunity to find out more about you and for you to find out more about the role.

We are looking for two volunteers to support the collection of patient feedback using both paper and electronic methods, assist with organising and facilitating focus groups, promote patient participation and accurately input feedback into the appropriate systems including spreadsheets.

The team are based in an office next to St Thomas Hospital, Westminster, and volunteers will be there occasionally but the majority of the role will be at our range of health centres across Lambeth and Southwark. Volunteers will not be expected to travel between health centres and will be assigned to either a single location for their volunteer session or the office.  The team will liaise with the volunteer to identify the most suitable location, considering service needs and your preference.

This is a weekday role, 10.00 am to 3.00 pm and you will assigned a specific day suitable for you. 

You will need to be confident in approaching and assisting patients to complete feedback and be happy to support feedback groups.  

You will need excellent IT skills and be confident in using tablets and computers to support electronic surveys and data entry. Full training will be given on the systems you will need to use for this role. 

You will need to be happy working independently as well as part of a team.