healthier if I volunteer? That's the message on the front page of our state newspaper this morning.
The claim is that a study in the United States has shown that people who are volunteers are happier and healthier than other people. I would like to know a great deal more about that study before I made the claim. It might be that happy and healthy people volunteer, not that volunteering makes you happy and healthy. It might be a little of both. There may - or may not be - mental and physical health benefits. I do not know.
I do know that it is getting harder for organisations here to find volunteers. The places I know which rely on volunteers almost all have ageing volunteers. Our local charity shops, the community centre, the library, schools and elsewhere all suffer.
Part of the problem is that there is no longer a pool of "stay at home mums" to rely on - the people who used to staff the school canteens, do Meals on Wheels, take elderly neighbours shopping etc.
The other part of the problem is that it is now much more difficult to volunteer. You do not just turn up and offer to help. You require a police certificate - for which you have to pay and pay to keep updated in some cases. The police certificate is fair enough if you are in close contact with people or handle other people's money etc but paying for it is something many people object to doing.
Then there is the training aspect. You have to attend "occupational health and safety" courses for almost everything. Where you once turned up at the school canteen, donned an apron and gave your hands a thorough wash you now have to attend a course on how hot the water has to be and how long you must wash your hands. I do not think they tell you how to tie your apron strings. My late mother was volunteering at the Red Cross Blood Bank canteen at the beginning of this OHS business. They did a morning. The course has grown longer - and longer. You have to "upgrade" and attend "refresher" courses.
I do not volunteer anywhere on a regular basis. I simply do not have the time to attend multiple OHS courses - courses I could teach. One local charity shop can call me if someone comes in needing the sort of help which involves filling out forms etc. The elderly people along my pedalling route know they can leave a little signal at their letter box if they want me to pick up a prescription or do a little shopping. It is, I hope, just as useful a way of doing some practical service to the local community.
I am waiting for the local OHS police to tell me I must cease doing that - although I do not know on what grounds. I am waiting for national OHS to tell me I must cease doing my job for fear I use a wrong word somewhere and cause an international incident - or perhaps they will insist on me doing a course? What sort of course?
There are all sorts of courses everywhere for everyone who wants to volunteer. It is important for people to be able to volunteer safely and with due regard for the safety of others but an entire new industry has sprung up - along with a much greater awareness of the capacity for litigation.
It is preventing people from offering to help and others from accepting their services.
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4 comments:
It is indeed getting a little strange on the volunteering front. Nobody wants to get sued - and if you do injure yourself while volunteering - say,spill boiling water on yourself while in that school canteen- who pays your doctor's bill? Most school canteens these days are run by outsiders anyway. I remember when my first school's canteen was tendered out and stopped selling plain milk because the kids wouldn't buy it. Your from of volunteering sounds as if it works.
As someone who used to volunteer in school libraries before I got a job in one, I can tell you that it DID make me happier. I felt as if I was worth something.
Be thankful you're not a teacher, who has to have police checks done and pay for them - it used to be every five years, but now it's going to be every year. And it doesn't help - we keep reading in the papers about this or that sleazy teacher. To get a police record, you have to be caught, and when you are,it's in the news.
It is preventing people from offering to help and others from accepting their services.'
Yes on both counts!
I was a teacher Sue - got out years ago (no jobs or career prospects in education for the disabled). It won't stop the wrong sort of people applying and getting work in the area unfortunately.
There is of course "public liability" insurance for accidents - trouble is that a very minor accident can end up costing a lot when it would once have been considered not worth worrying about. (Not saying burns are not serious but I know someone who sued and won for a minor cut - because she went to the doctor for a tetanus injection she should have had before she started the job in question, indeed she said her tetanus jab was up to date.
Those are the sort of people who make it so difficult for everyone!
It is a parasite industry which has sucked the blood from the volunteering sources.
And as to litigiation, Costa Rican judges still have the idea that if you spill boiling water on yourself you should have been more careful!
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