LEWISTON – Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice is seeking individuals who are interested in becoming hospice volunteers.

The next training will begins Tuesday, Jan. 24. The 27-hour training will be held over five weeks from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at the agency’s office, 15 Strawberry Ave.

Participants will discover the world of hospice through discussion, guest speakers and skill-strengthening activities. The course will explore a range of topics, including hospice philosophy, pain management, communication, spirituality, grief and bereavement and the role of hospice volunteers.

Nancy Greene, Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice volunteer coordinator, said, “The AHCH hospice program cares for patients in their homes, as well as long-term care facilities and, at the new hospice house. A volunteer may start visiting a patient in their home and continue to visit with the patient if they move to the hospice house or a long-term care facility. Volunteers can build wonderful relationships very quickly with patients and their families. That relationship can continue wherever the patient may be.”

When hospice volunteers are matched with patients in or near their communities, they visit regularly and may stay with the patient for several hours while a caregiver gets time away from the home, do errands if requested or meet other special needs.

“Sometimes the need is for someone to just be present, to sit quietly and simply be’ with the patient,” said Greene.

Greene said hospice volunteers are needed throughout Androscoggin, Franklin, Oxford and northern Cumberland counties.

To be a volunteer, a person needs to be nonjudgmental, warm, compassionate and a good listener. A volunteer must also respect confidentiality and be able to provide his/her own transportation.

Participants are asked to make a commitment of volunteering two to four hours a week for a year. All prospective volunteers are interviewed before acceptance into the program.

For more information, call Greene at 1-800-482-7412 or 777-7740. For more information on the agency, visit www.AHCH.org.