Pharmacy students help make VON program

October 15, 2004

Pharmacy students help make VON program a 'huge success'

by Catherine Young

	Six first-year Dal Pharmacy students are volunteering their time for theVictorian Order of Nurses this year. (Lowther photo)Back row, left to right:Tara Friel, Suzanne Richards and Marian PettipasFront row, left to right:Alyssa DeBaie, Maria Schella, Nancy Harris (Community Experience ProgramCo-ordinator) and Kendra Montigny

"I just love September because I know the Pharmacy students are coming," Chris Baert-Wilson, Co-ordinator of Development and Community SupportServices for the Victorian Order of Nurses in Halifax, can't enthuse enoughabout Dalhousie Pharmacy students.

This year, six Dalhousie first-year Pharmacy students joined the Halifax VON's Volunteer Visiting Program. In this program, community volunteers visit seniors or chronically disabled adults in their homes for one to three hours weekly. (The VON's Volunteer Visiting Program is totally funded by the United Way - and your donations.)

Students fill a large need, since social isolation for seniors is rampant, says Baert-Wilson. "The Volunteer Visiting Program provides social support and relieves isolation in a one-to-one environment." She says the Pharmacy students have been a "huge success" as visitors.

After introducing its Community Experience Program seven years ago, the School of Pharmacy started providing the VON with student volunteers. Through the first-year credit course, Pharmacy 1080, students are required to give volunteer service to various community organizations. This voluntary service, says program co-ordinator Nancy Harris, gives students practice working with their communications skills and allows them to develop the basics of professionalism.

	(Left to Right) Former Dalhousie employee Shirley Haley visits with pharmacy student Angela Frankenne during a recent outing to the Halifax Public Gardens. The pair found friendship when they were matched through the United Way VON Volunteer Visiting Program. (Lowther photo)

Volunteer visiting has become an important part of second-year Pharmacy student Angela Frankenne's life. It eased the transplant from Burlington, Ontario in her transition to life in a new city last year. This program has given her "companionship, a break from studies and a new friend," she says. Angela's new friend is Shirley Haley, who worked at Dalhousie's Payroll Department for 24 years until a paralyzing 1994 stroke forced her to retire. Shirley looks forward to Angela's weekly visits. "I don't get out that often, so we go out to the malls. We go out shopping around - sometimes to Spring Garden Road and sometimes by Access-a-bus to the malls. And when we come back, she'll stay and do any little thing I need doing. It's a godsend."

Angela Frankenne says that this program will make her a better pharmacist. "By working in the Volunteer Visiting Program, you learn to interact with people in a more sensitive manner." If it's not already obvious, Chris Baert-Wilson of the VON stresses that visits are mutually beneficial. "First, most students are from away so the folks can share their knowledge of the city with these 'newbies.' Secondly, the students may or may not have grandparents - and if they're from away, their grandparents aren't around them. So clients feel less like they are recipients of care as opposed to a mentoring and equal relationship ... They feel like they're somewhat responsible for their emotional well-being."

The bonds of friendship created mean that visits often continue for years after the initial matching program ends. As Pharmacy's Nancy Harris says, "There are students from the first year we ran the program - seven years ago - who are still visiting the people they started seeing all those years ago."Now in her second year, Angela Frankenne is continuing her visits with her new friend, Shirley Haley, this year. "We get along great and we like doing the same things on the afternoons I go over. Why wouldn't I want to continue?"

The VON's Volunteer Visiting Program invites other Dalhousie faculty, staff and students to get involved. call the VON's Chris Baert-Wilson at 452-9413, ext. 223, for more information.