Supporting families <\/strong><\/p>\nSchrader said that as he meets families during these stressful times, he’s witness to the best in people.<\/p>\n
“People show their true compassion and it’s really beautiful,” he said.<\/p>\n
Often, he answers questions about the process of dying.<\/p>\n
“I explain that the body is shutting down and help people understand the stages of what’s happening,” he said.<\/p>\n
Schrader said that explaining the death process to friends and family members makes it less upsetting for them.<\/p>\n
“It really helps people,” he said.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he helps family members process their stress about the situation. In other cases, he helps people deal with feelings about complicated family relationships.<\/p>\n
Helping caregivers<\/p>\n
Schrader said that a lot of his work goes to support caregivers.<\/p>\n
“This is something that really surprised me when I got into this work,” he said.<\/p>\n
Schrader explained that when a person is sent to hospice care, family members and close friends step in to help with day-to-day care with support from a team.<\/p>\n
“It’s often a 24-hour a day job,” he said. “It’s one of the more challenging things.”<\/p>\n
He said he helps by showing family members how to deal with straightforward, daily things like getting the patient to the bathroom or keeping their loved one clean. He also helps set up equipment and provides training to help families use it.<\/p>\n
“Much of what I do as a volunteer is to support the caregiver. Being a caregiver is incredibly demanding both physically and emotionally. Often the caregiver is also elderly and may have physical limitations,” he said. “I look for anything I can do to be helpful. It’s often just simple things like changing light bulbs, taking out the trash, picking up medications, maybe walking the dog.”<\/p>\n
Schrader said that he often offers to stay with the patient so family members can take a break and recharge.<\/p>\n
“That’s when I get to spend quality time with people and get to know them. I get people to talk about their lives. I’m amazed at how amazing people are,” he said.<\/p>\n
Standing witness <\/strong><\/p>\nSchrader said that hospice patients often feel better after returning home.<\/p>\n
“They are often quite perky and happy to be back at home. They get a lot better as soon as they come home,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said the process of dying unleashes a wide range of emotions that can include fear and anger. He said that he’s there to stand as a witness and validate their feelings.<\/p>\n
Some patients are eager to talk about their lives. Others have spiritual questions, he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s really good to get them to talk about it. Some are very afraid of dying and it’s good to be as reassuring as possible,” Schrader said, noting that he listens and encourages people to share their religious perspectives with him.<\/p>\n
Perspective on living <\/strong><\/p>\nSchrader said that his hospice works give him a new appreciation for his life and helps him face his mortality, as he grows older.<\/p>\n
“It makes me more appreciative of my life and what I have,” he said. “Someday, someone will deliver a hospital bed to my house,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said that knowledge compels him and his wife, Sue, to live life fully.<\/p>\n
“We better do what we can,” he said, adding that he enjoys being active outdoors.<\/p>\n
“My end is not so theoretical anymore,” he said.<\/p>\n
The team<\/p>\n
Schrader said that the people at Catholic Community Service make his work possible.<\/p>\n
“It’s a real team with great staff, he said. “The entire team is just wonderful, and people are just incredibly caring people. People are so thankful and so grateful.”<\/p>\n
Jessica Kinville, Catholic Community Service volunteer coordinator, said that Schrader is an important part of the team.<\/p>\n
“Carl is a great person. He approaches his work with a sort of gentleness and is always an active, sympathetic listener,” she told the Empire in a phone interview Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
“A lot of people have felt very supported by him. He’s someone I can always count on. He always puts his heart into his work,” she added.<\/p>\n
Schrader said that Catholic Community Service offers many senior services, and they are always looking for more volunteers.<\/p>\n
“Here I am as a Buddhist, working for the Catholics,” he laughed.<\/p>\n
“They have the organization and offer a lot of wonderful senior services,” he said. “We are all part of a compassionate team. We want to do what we can for people.”<\/p>\n
Volunteer of the Year<\/p>\n
According to the governor’s office, the First Lady of Alaska Rose Dunleavy chose Schrader as a recipient of the Volunteer of the Year award.<\/p>\n
“Carl embodies the true Alaskan spirit and shares it through his camaraderie and passion,” the release said. “Carl is a compassionate ear for those in physical and spiritual pain, a warm presence for grieving families, and always on standby to set up a hospital bed in a living room. Carl has maintained consistent availability day-after-day, year-after-year; he is calm and patient in work that is unpredictable and emotionally taxing.”<\/p>\n
Schrader is humble about receiving the Volunteer of the Year Award.<\/p>\n
“I’m really accepting on behalf of the hospice team. It really felt like a shout-out to the nursing staff. I’m privileged to be a part of the team. The award really acknowledges the entire program,” he said.<\/p>\n
Schrader was honored for his work at a ceremonial luncheon in Anchorage earlier this month.<\/p>\n
“The reception was really good,” Schrader said. “It was nice to drop all the politics and just be there as people. We are all just people.” <\/p>\n
Volunteers welcome <\/strong><\/p>\nSchrader said several volunteer opportunities are available through Catholic Community Service, including Friends of Seniors, which helps senior citizens with basic needs like shopping and dog walking.<\/p>\n
He encourages people interested in volunteering to call Jessica Kinville, Catholic Community Service volunteer coordinator at (907)-463-6111.<\/p>\n
• Contact reporter Dana Zigmund at dana.zigmund@juneaue.pire.com or 907-308-4891.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hospice volunteer reflects on his work <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":716,"featured_media":77267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-77266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/716"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77266"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=77266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}