Sneha Gade
The Doorways is a lodging and support service for patients and their loved ones who need to be close to the hospital. Pre-pandemic, college students and other volunteers visited “The Doorways” to volunteer by setting up lunches, talking to residents, and doing other small tasks. The interaction of the volunteers with the residents helped, with emotional support for those going through tough situations. After the pandemic hit, volunteers no longer were allowed to visit, this left the residents without any emotional support. This is when a virtual mental health focused opportunity was started up.
Through setting up virtual events volunteering biweekly for the residents, I was able to interact with a wide array of people who were dealing with a medical crisis in their family and being far away from their homes. I was in charge of working with a team to conduct biweekly events to help relieve the stress of the residents and help them divert their thoughts from their current issues to something more lighthearted. In my opinion, it is essential for them to have an environment that is suitable for healing and emotional support. We planned multiple collaborative volunteer events with the residents like bingo night, trivia night, and a stress reliever event.
Helping plan, conduct, and interact with the residents helped me think as if I was in their shoes. I was able to understand how stressful it may be to have someone close in a medical emergency. Conducting these events also made them enjoy some light-hearted events and get their thoughts away from their current anxieties. Since the pandemic has gotten better, I hope to continue volunteering with the Doorways in a hybrid format, to try to impact the lives of the residents in small ways!
