You can support outstanding patient care by joining our volunteering community. We have opportunities for all kinds of people who want to put their time to good use and make a positive impact.
Volunteering can help you build skills, increase your understanding of the NHS and know you're making a real difference to patient care - three of many reasons to get involved.
We've set out an exciting vision where volunteers are making a real difference by being involved in every aspect of our work. You can read more about it in our 4 year plan.
Find a volunteering opportunity
We have been working on our new volunteer management system called Better Impact. Through the new system, exisiting volunteers can log in and new volunteers can view the current volunteering opportunities that are available at the Trust.
Better Impact login:
Through Better Impact, you can access volunteering opportunities. See what roles we have on offer through the Better Impact web page below:
If you're an existing volunteer, you can log into Better Impact below:
Volunteer better impact timeclock
Log your volunteering hours simply by starting and stopping your clock at the beginning and end of each shift with the Better Impact Timeclock.
About our volunteers
Volunteering and engaging with patients has many benefits including:
- improving the health or experience of those receiving care
- improving services for other people
- the beneficial impacts on volunteers themselves.
Our volunteers say it best with their volunteering experiences and impact. Hear from some of our volunteers below:
Why did you become a volunteer?
I have been working with young people for over 19 years as a qualified Mentor and Youth worker professional. The experience learnt has provided me with the passion and enthusiasm towards making a positive contribution around mental health. Throughout the last seven and half years, I decided to put these skills and knowledge into good practice by supporting adults and patients with mental health support needs.
What do you gain personally from volunteering?
With the years gone by, I've really enjoyed working together with patients and their social workers to design and deliver bespoke programmes for each patient.
One programme involved supporting a patient to write a letter to the mother of his child to improve communications between the two of them as parents. For another patient, I put together a presentation based on his country of origin and presented this to him during one of our meetings.
One of my stand-out achievements as a volunteer has to be when I was selected out of many volunteers to write an article which featured in one of the Hospital’s bulletins.
What difference do you think you are making for the team?
As a respected and accomplished volunteer within the team, I was invited to deliver a PowerPoint presentation in last Autumn about my effective ways of working with service users during an induction for new volunteers. I felt honoured and well appreciated from my peers to be involved in this delivery.
Last year, before the Queen’s death, I was nominated for the Jubilee Queen’s Awards by my volunteer supervisor based on my volunteer work at the Hospital. It was a huge honour to be considered for such a prestigious award, let alone shortlisted.
Would you recommend this type of volunteering and why?
I would definitely recommend this type of volunteering. It is a particularly interesting role for people working or studying sociology or criminology and for anyone interested in the general mental health area.
Our Pets As Therapy (PAT) programme is supporting staff and patients' well-being by offering animal companionship provision, as reported by Luca (pictured) and his human, Poonam Bhogal, one of our dedicated PAT volunteers, who is also a member of staff at the Trust.
Through the PAT programme, Poonam and Luca have been able to offer:
- 43 hours of volunteering within 6 months
- support to 51 patients and staff.
Poonam says:
I really enjoy bringing Luca into work with me as I find it really cheers up my co-workers, and creates a positive and happy environment. The staff enjoy having Luca around and always ask when he is in next.
I notice change in staff’s mood where they are more smiley and they take time out to come to play and see him. It breaks up everyone’s day and I can see how it helps improve their mood.
For me, I love being able to make a positive impact for my team and seeing how having Luca makes such a difference to people. Not just staff, but also patients we visit. It’s hard to explain in words.
I feel so grateful that West London NHS Trust are able to support this scheme.
This Student Volunteering Week (13-19 February) we would like to thank all the students who offer their time and volunteer in a range of roles at West London NHS Trust.
We spoke to Jasmine Dancel, a postgraduate student at the University of Westminster, about her volunteering experience at the Trust.
Interested in getting involved?
Find out more about volunteering and how you can help make a difference.
