17 Jan 2025
The Aftercare Volunteers bringing additional support to patients and families
Blog, by Natalie Ashley, EAAA Aftercare Clinical Liaison Lead
East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) is a charity providing advanced critical care 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to the most seriously ill and injured people in the region by air and road.
The charity strives to towards giving everyone the best chance of survival and recovery from a life-threatening emergency through the delivery of exceptional 24/7 out-of-hospital critical care. However, in the turbulent aftermath of a life-changing incident, EAAA’s Aftercare team provides invaluable emotional and practical support to local people and their loved ones, helping them make the difficult transition back to daily life and beyond.
It’s a service I’ve been proud to be a part of since I joined the charity in 2024. It has been an ambition to increase the aftercare support available, through the kindness of volunteers. I’ve been thrilled to be part of that journey in the last few months as we welcomed some incredible people to the team as Aftercare Volunteers.
The seeds of the project began to grow when, as specialist Aftercare Clinicians, sometimes we had given all the clinical support we could but recognised that patients, families, and bystanders at incidents attended by EAAA were benefitting and truly valuing ongoing emotional support. With EAAA now providing life-saving treatment and care to over 2,000 people a year, we began to consider options to ensure that everyone who needed this support continued to receive it. At an appropriate point, we can now connect people to volunteers, meaning we can support a bigger pool of people without compromising on the support each person and family receives.
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Our six volunteers – soon to become seven – are working closely with the Aftercare service. They’re drawing on their own skills, expertise and interests, and are already making a difference after just a few months. They have supported nine home visits, joined team meetings, supported somebody to engage with local support groups following bereavement, and helped us collect feedback from those we engage with to help us to continue to develop and improve the support we provide.
Of course, a great deal of thought went into the process, including making sure the appropriate safety mechanisms and checks were in place. Despite it still being very early days of the Aftercare Volunteers scheme, benefits are already being seen. It means that not only can EAAA support more people, but we can do so for longer. It’s providing more than simply signposting; it’s meaningful connections for people to talk to for as long as they need to. There is always the aim to help people to move forward, but with the knowledge they can contact us again in the future if they need to.
The volunteers have, to date, helped us with four base visits. These are special moments when patients and families return to EAAA to reconnect with the crew who attended them. They are helping to host the EAAA Patient Forum Group, where former patients and families can help to shape the future of the charity. They are also helping with vital personal touches. Sue, for example, has written over 300 cards to patients and families since the end of August. She writes such beautiful and thoughtful messages in these cards, which we routinely send to patients and families around two weeks after their incident.
In true EAAA fashion, we are always looking to the future, how we can develop and make the Aftercare service even more valuable to our community. We hope to, eventually, offer small face-to-face group meetings, and identify and work with groups who might benefit from peer support, such as bereaved families, or people who have been involved in road traffic collisions. We also hope to offer health and wellbeing events with complementary therapies, like yoga, reiki and sound baths, as wellbeing tasters which people might find beneficial to their personal circumstances. These can be all be supported by volunteers and continue to have a big impact on helping people to move forward after their incident.
In 2024, EAAA supported 472 people through our aftercare service. Moving forward, we hope that even more former patients and families will benefit from the practical and emotional support available as they negotiate the challenging path of recovery. We are so grateful to the wonderful team of compassionate volunteers for giving their time to EAAA to make this possible. They are truly demonstrating the impact and kindness that volunteers make in the heart of our communities.
The EAAA Aftercare Volunteer scheme is a new and developing project. If you feel you would like to support the project in the future, or volunteer for EAAA in other ways, please register your interest.
