Beaver Staff
When the call for help was put out in the fight against COVID-19, residents of Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington answered.
Ordinary people gave up their time to volunteer their services with KFLA Public Health in any capacity that they could.
“Over the past year we have been overwhelmed by the response from our community wanting to do whatever they can to keep our community safe,” wrote Hazel Gilchrist, manager of human resources with KFLA Public Health. “We have received more than 500 applications from community members wanting to volunteer and have approximately 175 volunteers fulfilling roles at mass immunization clinics and rural clinics, conducting contact tracing and booking client appointments. Vaccine supply will increase over the summer months, so we will be actively reaching out to volunteers that are currently on our waiting list.”
Volunteers were first brought in last summer to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing. Their job was to reach out to people who had been exposed to COVID-19 and provide education to help limit the spread of the virus in the community. Gilchrist says they have about 25 volunteer contact tracers and their workload fluctuates based on active case counts.
More recently, volunteers have been enlisted to help at mass immunization clinics (MICs).
“We have over 100 non-clinical volunteers that provide support at MICs in the following roles: screeners, ushers, runners, scribes and monitors in Napanee and Kingston,” added Gilchrist. “This group includes students from St. Lawrence and Queen’s University. In addition, we have coordinated an additional 20 volunteers to support rural clinics in Amherstview and Harrowsmith. At the MICs in Kingston and Napanee, we have approximately 40 clinical volunteers that are either immunizing or preparing vaccine. Clinical volunteers are licensed regulated health professionals (nursing and pharmacy professionals) that are either retired or able to coordinate volunteering within their current work/family schedule.”
A third group of volunteers are assisting with client book and re-booking for vaccines.
“Due to a change in interval timing for second doses, a large number of clients required appointment cancellation and rebooking,” Gilchrist noted. “Two volunteers together with a team of staff have been actively working on this project. The successes we have achieved to-date are in large part due to the volunteers we have and the tireless hours they put in. We are always thankful for their commitment and support but would like to express our gratitude publicly during National Volunteer Week (April 18-24). A huge thank-you to all our volunteers.”