Volunteering opportunities

For Volunteers’ Week, we are inviting people interested in volunteering to a special event to find out more.

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to more than 3.2 million people living across Luton, Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk.

We offer a range of volunteering opportunities to support our patients and staff and help us ensure service users remain at the heart of all that we do.

Just a few of the opportunities currently on offer include:

• Volunteering as a dementia buddy to support patients to take part in art, craft and music therapy
  
• Helping with patient craft and gardening groups at Cumberlege Intermediate Care Centre, a rehabilitation unit in Rochford for patients who have experienced a period of illness or immobility
  
• Taking part in our Buddy Scheme to give health and care workers the chance to learn from the lived experience of volunteers with mental health conditions

Matthew Sisto, Director of Patient Experience, said:

“Our volunteers provide incredible support for our patients and staff and are vital because they allow us to connect with the people and communities that we serve.

“Many of our volunteers have lived experience of our services – this enables us to hear the patient point of view and put the people who use our services at the centre of service design, service creation and service delivery”.

Volunteers’ Week (1 June -7 June) is an annual celebration of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering in their communities.

Carole is one of those volunteers. She said:

“Volunteering at EPUT gives me a sense that I’m contributing. I’ve had a lot of care over the years and volunteering gives me a chance to share and give something back.”

EPUT’s Patient Experience Team is inviting the Trust’s current volunteers and anyone interested in becoming a volunteer to join them at a celebratory event at The Lodge, Lodge Approach, Runwell, Wickford, SS11 7XX on Friday 2 June between 11am and 2pm.

Anyone interested in volunteering at EPUT is encouraged to come along to meet the Patient Experience Team and find out more about the opportunities on offer. Please email [email protected] to book a place.

Find out more about volunteering at EPUT.