The Volunteer Program in the Psychiatric Division of a Children's Hospital

Volunteers in the division of child psychiatry of Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago are interviewed and given a general orientation by the volunteer department, which is headed by a paid employee, and are given specific, task-oriented, on-the-job training by staff members in the division. Volunteers ranging in age from the teens to the mid-sixties are active in outpatient services, in the day hospital program, which accommodates 48 children, and in the 18-bed inpatient unit. In a typical month an average of 90 volunteers give approximately 1900 hours of service. The authors list several reasons for the success of the volunteer program, including the one they feel is most important—administrative and staff acceptance of volunteers as an integral part of the program, not as do-gooders to be tolerated.