LEWISTON — Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice will offer Hospice Volunteer training for individuals in the Farmington and Rumford areas. The training will be held on Mondays and Thursdays at the Wilton Office on 284 Main St., Suite 290, beginning Sept. 12 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Once trained, volunteers will be matched with patients from their own area.

Hospice Volunteers receive 20 hours of specialized training to prepare them in supporting terminally ill patients in the home setting, in nursing facilities and at the Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice’s Hospice House. Volunteers receive training in hospice philosophy; listening; finding meaning at the end of life; grief, loss and bereavement; disease process; family dynamics; roles of volunteers and all they need to know before they begin their volunteer role. Individuals from Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice are part of a group of trainers who come in and talk about their specialty area. Volunteers leave with a well-rounded understanding of the hospice program and the incredible role they play as well as how they can best support patients and/or families.

Many volunteers have benefited from the services offered through Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice and made the decision to give back for the wonderful care their loved one and family received. Some of the other reasons people volunteer include giving to those in their own community, doing something valuable with their time and meeting other people. Many volunteers have shared the feeling of getting so much more in return than what they gave.

Evelyn Bodemer, hospice volunteer from Andover, has been volunteering for almost six years. Her parents both died from cancer when she was out of state raising a young family. She was unable to be there as she had wished. Later when she had the time, she decided to help other people where she had missed out on doing this for her parents. Bodemer said, “Volunteering is very rewarding. You feel good when you are helping someone else. People will ask me how I can do this type of work, and I simply say it makes me feel good, and I like being there for people. I have found that it can be an adventure, as you never know what is going to happen.”

To register for the upcoming training, contact the Volunteer Department at 1-800-482-7412, ext. 1280, or visit www.ahch.org. For more information on AHCH, visit www.AHCH.org.