Vigil Volunteers for Hospice Patients

At Agave Hospice, we strive to support our patients and their families every step of the way in their end-of-life journey. Part of that support comes from making sure actively dying patients are not alone in their last days, hours and minutes by providing Vigil Volunteers to sit with them during this precious time.

Our Vigil Volunteers go through general Volunteer Orientation and then are trained specifically in the characteristics of death and dying by our Clinical team to gain familiarity with what to expect.

From there, when a patient is actively dying and is alone, or the family needs additional support, our team calls on our Vigil Volunteers to sit at the bedside and offer the "gift of presence". Our Vigil Volunteers keep "vigil" by providing emotional and spiritual support with gentleness and reflection. It's an act of love, respect, solidarity and helping the patient feel comfortable and not alone in their final moments.

This is a non-clinical volunteer role. Vigil Volunteers are not responsible for physically caring for patients, but instead offer a gentle presence for a dying person.