Doctors to encourage volunteering
If you’re about to retire, you may want to speak to your doctor about the prospect of volunteering. According to international researcher, Dr Stephen Post, from Stony Brook University in New York, volunteering can improve wellbeing to such an extent that doctors should recommend it to patients – particularly the elderly.
If you’re about to retire, you may want to speak to your doctor about the prospect of volunteering.
According to international researcher Dr Stephen Post, from Stony Brook University in New York, volunteering can improve wellbeing to such an extent that doctors should recommend it to patients – particularly the elderly, those with depression and people overcoming major injuries.
“Happiness, health and longevity are the benefits that have been reported in more than 50 investigations,” he said.
Dr Post, who will visit Adelaide next year to speak about the topic, believes recommending unpaid work should be a part of the “culture of healthcare systems”.
Australian Medical Association SA former president, Peter Ford, told AAP doctors often discussed the importance of volunteering with patients about to retire.
“It’s a good thing to recommend generally speaking but some people have a tendency to take on too much, so you need to be wary of that,” he said.
South Australian Minister for Volunteers, Ian Hunter, said while volunteering did not offer a clinical cure, it could often help “put things into perspective”.
Benefits of volunteering (Government of South Australia):
- increased personal satisfaction
- development of social networks
- learning new skills or maintaining existing ones
- gaining work experience.
About 600,000 South Australians people contribute to their local communities as a volunteer each year. Nationally, this means about five million people give their time to freely help others.
