Exploring Volunteers' Experiences in Health TAPESTRY, a Primary Care-Based Program
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Volunteers
- Sponsor
- McMaster University
- Enrollment
- 89
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Volunteers' Experiences
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- 5 years ago
Overview
Brief Summary
This study is meant to evaluate the Health TAPESTRY volunteer program. The objective of this study is to explore volunteer experiences in Health TAPESTRY in terms of implementation and to understand how participation in Health TAPESTRY as a volunteer is related to compassion, self-reported physical activity, quality of life, and attitudes toward older adults.
Detailed Description
Health TAPESTRY aims to help people stay healthier for longer in the places where they live. As a person-focused, proactive approach, Health TAPESTRY incorporates trained community volunteers into the primary care team in a way that is seamless and complementary to the essential work that clinicians are undertaking each day. In the program, volunteers conduct home visits with older adult clients, complete questionnaires, and connect their clients to primary care and community resources. This study offers the opportunity to fill a major gap in the literature by investigating the experiences of volunteers within Health TAPESTRY and the effect on them of participation as an intervention in its own right. Specifically, the study seeks to understand volunteers' experiences in the program and evaluate any effects that volunteering with the program has on the volunteers including with the volunteers health and wellness (specifically physical activity and quality of life), empathy, and attitudes toward older adults. The investigators will also look at how the volunteers patterns of compassion fatigue and compassion satisfaction might change throughout involvement in the program, and how that connects to volunteer demographic characteristics like age and gender, as well as other characteristics like empathy, how many home visits are conducted, and the initial motivation to volunteer with the program. This program evaluation study will employ qualitative and quantitative data collection strategies including surveys, narratives written by volunteers, and volunteer focus groups.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Exclusion Criteria
- Not provided
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Volunteers' Experiences
Time Frame: 12 months
Volunteers' and volunteer coordinators' perceptions about their experiences in Health TAPESTRY overall, and specifically in regards to their understanding of their role; the training that was offered and how it did or did not support them in carrying out their role effectively; the process of engagement in the program from onboarding through the volunteer coordination to conducting home visits with clients; and the perceived outcomes of volunteering, including the impact of volunteering on their own health and wellness. This will be collected through qualitative data: focus groups for volunteers and interviews for volunteer coordinators at the 12-month mark, and volunteer narratives which are written post-client-visits.
Secondary Outcomes
- Compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue(Baseline, 3 month, 6 month, 9 month, 12 months)
- Reasons for Volunteering(Baseline)
- Physical Activity(Baseline, 12 months)
- Quality of Life(Baseline, 12 months)
- Attitudes Toward Older Adults(Baseline, 12 months)
- Empathy(Baseline, 12 months)
- Outcomes of Volunteering(12 Months)