A VOLUNTEER who has provided advice, support and friendship to fellow arthritis patients at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary (DGRI) for over 20 years is stepping down from her role.
Cathie Guthrie has decided to make that decision ahead of the move of the rheumatology clinic to the new £213 million hospital at Garroch Loaning in Dumfries as part of the migration taking place on the weekend of Dec 8.
However, the 75-year-old is urging other people to follow in her footsteps and carry on the important work of the volunteers.
Cathie was forced to give up her job due to arthritis in the 1990s.
But it led to an opportunity to serve as a volunteer and help other people faced with the challenges of the same condition, and to being named Volunteer of the Year for Arthritis in 2006 and Volunteer of the Year for the NHS in 2010.
CATHIE ON THE ORIGINS OF HER VOLUNTEERING LIFE:
“I don’t really know that a volunteer who doesn’t know what people are going through and what people are suffering can give the same caring side of it as someone like myself. I’ve been through it all.
“It all started when I was a patient. I still am a patient at the hospital.
“I had hand surgery in Glasgow, and occupational therapist Jan Beaumont was the one who had to do all the therapy on the hands.
“At that time I was volunteering for Arthritis Research. Arthritis Research and Arthritis Care amalgamated this year, and they’re now a joint organisation.
“At that time Arthritis Care wondered if they could get volunteers and train them up as information workers and try to get them into hospitals or anywhere at all that would take a volunteer.
“Well they contacted Jan Beaumont, and Jan being Jan said, ‘I’ve got the perfect person for you’, and she volunteered me for this post.
“As a volunteer, in those days you really had to do a lot of hard training and go away for weekends. So I started training in 1997.
“We started in Bay 1, just giving out the Arthritis Care handbooks. And then when Sister Cunningham came on the scene, between her and Jan we pushed this project even further and then started to approach the patients, especially new ones, and gave them all the handouts that covered every aspect of arthritis.
“It was saying to them, ‘I’ve got arthritis’, and giving them a little bit of support to show how they could progress from your first diagnosis, as most people are devastated when they’re actually diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
“We started ‘Gadget of the Month’. Jan got the gadgets, and we had that in place when they moved us over to the orthopaedic department on a Thursday.
“I was trained to go out to different organisations and speak about arthritis and the work I actually did at the hospital.
“So when we moved over about 12 years ago to the orthopaedic department it moved everything onto a wider scale, because by that time I was then able to take the pressure off the nurse by giving out questionnaires about the patient’s health and what they can do.”
CATHIE ON HER ROLE AS A VOLUNTEER:
“In the time I’ve been there I’ve spoken to patients who have just had a bereavement and have felt they’ve needed someone to talk to. People who have been diagnosed with cancer as well as arthritis have been quite upset, and I’ve been there for them.
“Once we moved over to rheumatology at the orthopaedic department we had a freer hand. We had more room, we were able to speak more freely, and if a patient felt they wanted to speak but didn’t want anyone to hear what they were saying, we just went into an empty room.
“And if it was somebody that would maybe talk to me about their illness, but they were a bit reluctant to maybe mention it to the doctor or the nurse, I would just have a quiet word.”
CATHIE ON HER ROLE EACH THURSDAY AS A VOLUNTEER:
“I take my little trolley and all my booklets, which are kept with the occupational therapists, and I go into Bay 1 and stock up. All the leaflets are in Bay 1 and then I go from there round to the orthopaedic department and I get set up waiting for the first patient to come in. And the nurse Christine Stenton’s always there, and she has her side of it all set up. And then we just start.”
CATHIE ON CHANGES IN VOLUNTEERING:
“There wasn’t a volunteer doing the work I was recruited for. The volunteers were mostly in the shop or at the welcome desk. This was a new project, trying to put someone in, and it had to be someone who suffered from the same illness who could actually speak to the people there.”
“The Central Belt started to allow volunteers into the hospitals, but Dumfries and Galloway led the way. The hospitals in Glasgow and the surrounding areas allowed volunteers into the hospitals, but maybe not to the extent that I was allowed. Even although we were still doing the volunteer work, we still had to do training courses and volunteers meet up and give an explanation about what they’ve actually been doing. I’ve seen a lot of changes.
“I’ve gone out and I’ve spoken to Arthritis Care branches in my time, and the gadgets were things like the electric can openers. We demonstrated them. We demonstrated special gloves to help any patients and special spray cans. Jan would acquire them, and I would show in the waiting room how they could be used.
I love what I’m doing and I’ll really miss it. I just feel that with the move to the new hospital that it’s just time.”
CATHIE ON THE IMPORTANCE OF HOSPITAL VOLUNTEERS:
“I think volunteers are needed, and I’ve always said throughout my volunteers time that it would be nice if they had volunteers in every department, but the volunteer has to have come through what the people are going through now to understand.
“ I’ve been through it all, and I have a good rapport between Jan, the occupational therapists, the nurses, the doctors – I get on very well with them, and I’ve been lucky in Dumfries and Galloway. No one has snubbed me or said, ‘What are you doing here?’, because you’ve got to be very careful as a volunteer.
CATHIE ON WHAT SHE GETS FROM BEING A VOLUNTEER:
“I love the volunteering and I think it’s very rewarding. Personally, I’ve got fellowship, friendship, a sense of belonging – not just as a volunteer but part of the rheumatology team.
“I know people have got mixed feelings about volunteers being in the hospital, because they don’t get paid, but they’re just doing it for the love of doing it. They’re not looking for any payment. And I just feel that payment that you get is through the friendship, because some of the patients become friends with you. When they walk in, they’ll say, ‘Hi Cathie – how are you doing?’
“I just feel that it’s very rewarding, and if your heart is in it then I would say go for it.”
TEAM LEAD OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST JAN BEAUMONT ON WHAT CATHIE HAS CONTRIBUTED OVER THE YEARS:
“Cathie was one of the first patients I saw when I started as an occupational therapist in rheumatology 20 years ago.
“I have always admired her practical approach to her own condition. Despite suffering rheumatoid arthritis herself she never complains about herself.
“She is a good listener to other patients’ problems and always able to offer good advice and support, helping them to see ways of dealing with their own illness.
“Patients come to clinic to see the doctors for medical treatment but always looked for Cathie if they needed to talk things through from a fellow patient who understood what they were going through. She has been an integral part of the patient clinic journey.
“She has rarely missed a clinic in 20 years, turning up every Thursday – rain, hail or shine.
“She is a fantastic example to other volunteers – selfless commitment, never about her and always about others.
“The other thing is she’s also been a fantastic support to the staff in the clinic – a steady, reliable presence, and we will all miss her here, too.”
HOW TO VOLUNTEER:
Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Volunter Co-ordinator Margaret McGroggan by emaling [email protected] or calling 01387 246246 ext 34603
