Volunteerism among older people with arthritis

Abstract

Research attention has turned towards investigating the motivations and experiences of those who volunteer under conditions that benefit both giver and recipient. The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivation of 22 older volunteers as they embarked on training to become lay leaders of an arthritis self-management programme. Data were collected through semi-structured telephone interviews at two points in time, before training and six weeks after training. Volunteerism was motivated by three key needs: to fill the vocational void left by retirement, to feel a useful member of society by helping others and to find a peer group. These key motivations remained important throughout the six weeks of the study. The costs of volunteering were perceived as time, responsibility, invasion of social life, failure, anxiety, and the duration and intensity of training. Nonetheless, older volunteers valued finding a purpose, reported less pain and an increased desire to ‘get on with life'. Results suggest that volunteering in later life can help to offset losses associated with retirement and decline in health. Further research, incorporating standard measures of health status, is needed if the impact of volunteering on the health of this study population is to be more fully understood.

Volunteers' experiences of becoming arthritis self-management lay leaders: ?It's almost as if I've stopped aging and started to get younger!?

“…Helping others has been associated with "improved morale, self-esteem, positive affect, and well-being" (12). The "Challenging Arthritis" (CA) course represents a special case of structured volunteering whereby both helper and recipient are likely to reap benefits from learning about managing their condition (13). The format of volunteering is prescribed; volunteers are trained to deliver a structured course using a detailed manual.…”

The role of individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors in mitigating burnout among elderly Chinese volunteers

“…Thus, it is understandable that volunteers may not easily experience a sense of personal accomplishment in the course of their voluntary service. In this study, a majority of the depicted benefits from voluntary work were related to contribution to the society and opportunities to acquire knowledge and skills, which are two important aspects of benefit/reward that elderly volunteers would like to obtain from their service (Barlow and Hainsworth, 2001). Indeed, results from hierarchical regression analyses showed that among all hypothesized factors, organizational factors of perceived benefit and satisfaction from voluntary work emerged as the best predictors of the LPA dimension of burnout.…”

“…It should be noted that personal achievement in paid employment would be measured against concrete outcomes such as pay increases and promotion. Participation in voluntary work often relies on intrinsic motives such as altruism, personal development, and social responsibility (Black and DiNitto, 1990;Omoto and Synder, 1995;Barlow and Hainsworth, 2001). However, the attainment of these intrinsic goals are often difficult to evaluate.…”

“…As voluntary work does not have explicit extrinsic rewards such as salary or fringe benefits, volunteers have to rely on more intrinsic rewards or motives for becoming and continuing to act as voluntary workers (Black and DiNitto, 1994;Omoto and Synder, 1995). Benefits that are of particular relevance to elderly volunteers include opportunities to learn new things, filling the vocational void left by retirement, becoming a useful member of the society, and finding a peer group (Barlow and Hainsworth, 2001). There is not yet any study examining the association between burnout and work satisfaction among volunteers.…”

The moderating role of age in the relationship between volunteering motives and well-being

“…This is probably because learning per se is important throughout adulthood. Age groups might just differ in the knowledge and skills that they consider age-relevant (Barlow and Hainsworth 2001). While learning new knowledge and skills are future-oriented for younger adults, learning social skills through volunteering may fulfill the emotionally meaningful goals for older adults.…”