A Qualitative Study on the Position and Role of Volunteers in Integrated Care—An Example of Palliative Care in Croatia

Dorja Vočanec, Karmen Lončarek, Maja Banadinović, Slavica Sović and Aleksandar Džakula
Additional contact information
Dorja Vočanec: Department of Social Medicine and Organization of Health Care, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Rockefeller St. No. 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Karmen Lončarek: Department of Integrated and Palliative Care, Rijeka University Hospital Center, Krešimirova St. No. 42, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia
Maja Banadinović: Firefly Association, Prilaz Gjure Deželića No. 50, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Slavica Sović: Department of Medical Statistics, Epidemiology and Medical Informatics, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Rockefeller St. No. 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Aleksandar Džakula: Department of Social Medicine and Organization of Health Care, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Rockefeller St. No. 4, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-15

Abstract: Volunteers have been present in palliative care since its inception. With the development of palliative care systems, their role and position are changing. Given growing long-term care needs and limited resources in health and social care, volunteers are becoming an important resource in meeting these needs. In Croatia, palliative care has been developing as an integrated care model since 2014. To assess the position and the role of volunteers, we analyzed legislative documents from healthcare and social care and conducted a focus group with volunteers in palliative care. We found that volunteers provide support from the social aspect of care, for the patient and the family. The formal palliative care system involves them as partners in the provision of care, even though this cooperation is informal. The main determinants of their activities are an individualized approach, flexibility, a community presence, and project funding. In conclusion, these determinants allow them to react quickly to identified needs, but with them come some uncertainties of their sustainability. Their activities could indicate what needs to be integrated between health and social care and in what areas. Volunteers both fill in gaps in the system and are ahead of the system, and by doing this they develop new processes around identified unmet needs.

Keywords: volunteers; integrated care; palliative care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/8203/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/8203/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:8203-:d:855855

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().