1. Discussing about the patient’s family: If possible, find out about the patient’s family background from the person-in-charge, be it the HCA hospice staff when they hand us the case, or the HCA member who is in charge of your group for that visit. If the patient is on good terms with his/her kin, then it should be ok for you to ask about the family. If you are uncertain, the general rule of thumb is to play it by ear. Some patients merrily “volunteer” to talk about their family as you converse with them, and for such cases, it’s ok to engage in further discussion. Just be sure to not be pushy should you find that you accidentally ask about someone that the patient doesn’t quite like, and to move on from there.In summary, let the patient help YOU answer your question
   

2. Before leaving the home, do remember to check on whether things like the pail have been emptied of dirty water, rags have been hung AND spread out to dry up, etc. We may sometimes unintentionally leave things in a mess in our enthusiasm to leave
   
3. When mopping the floor, ensure that it’s not too slippery/wet at all times, to ensure that the patient doesn’t accidentally fall on the floor.
   
4. The “Pictures” Issue: We can’t emphasise enough on how important it is to make absolutely sure we have BOTH the patient AND (NOT OR) the family members’ permission before we upload any pictures/videos/etc. pertaining to the client. This means that in most probability however, we won’t be able to openly post the pictures in their original state, so what we can do is to mask the patients’ faces/add smileys like what our Tua Bu did! This is to ensure that patients’ and their family members’ rights to privacy are not violated, and to instil confidence that the HCA volunteers are a professional group; after all, some of them would not be happy to have the fact that they have a terminally-ill family member publicised literally world-wide! Then… it might sound crazy, but… we wouldn’t want to be SUED or anything later now won’t we?
5. hello people! very important wor~ never never ask patients about their cancers or illnesses cos we can never be sure if he / she knows of his illness prognosis i.e. that is whether he knows he has terminal illness and he has little time left. sometimes when the patient eats alot of medication and doesnt feel well, he will know his illness is getting worse. however, we do not be the one who is to confirm with him that he is a terminal patient. unless the chairperson or vicechairperson assures you that the patient is aware of it and can openly discuss their cancer with you, do not openly ask them about their cancer condition. this may unnecessarily upset the patient and we do not want them to dwell on the negative matters. normal asking after their health is fine but always approach such topics gently just as the topics on their families.
   
   If we really want to share pictures with patients (they’ve given consent on an individual basis at least), do so in the protected “Private Pictures” page I’ve just set up. Password is as mentioned in the Yahoo! groups.

1. A short guide to ad-hoc outings to places in Spore.

– patient numbers are small (5-8). However, due to logistic reason we will always need double of the number so that each patient can have at least two volunteers to be tagged together. This ensures that our patient receives adequate care and attention along the way.

– There will be 1 or 2 volunteers who will be requested by our coordinator Max to join him at the center who will follow either one of the vans to fetch the patients at their homes. The duration of the picking up will takes roughly about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

– other Volunteers will be asked to come punctually to the stated meeting venue and meeting time. Punctuallity is very important as sometimes fetching of the patients may take less time as estimated and we do not want them to wait for us. Meeting early will also allow us to give a short briefing of what to do later.

– Outings are usually organised for 4 hours only, as most patients do get tired easily and need adequate rest. Hence the ending time of the outing will have to be on time. This is because if time drags, we must bear in mind the journey home may take up to 1 1/2 hours and may add on to their fatigue.

– When patients are leaving, do follow them to the van to assist in helping them board the van due to them difficulty in boarding. Having more volunteers to say good bye to them and saying some thanks will add on to a fruitful end of the outing. It is like a closure for them and they will be able to feel the love and concerns from a group of people.