Visits to the C.H.P.G.
An agreement establishing the rules of partnership between the Association and the Princess Grace Hospital, with a view to organising the work of support volunteers among hospitalised individuals, was signed in 2006 by the Director of the Hospitaland the President of the Associationi.
The doctors from the day hospital, the oncology and radiotherapy department, as well as their respective teams, demonstrate exceptional expertise, listening skills and dedication.
There is also a team of supportive and palliative carers whose role is to help you cross each hurdle of the disease, and at the same time to maintain the quality of your life in the best way possible from the very moment the diagnosis has been made. According to your needs and in cooperation with the referring medical team, you will be able to meet the doctor and his/her colleagues (nurses and psychologists).
A team of support volunteers is available to listen to patients staying at the Princess Grace Day Hospital.
Before being authorised to go and see patients, each volunteer receives training from the medical staff and signs an ethics charter. For the patient, a visit by volunteers means trying to make contact with civil life again, by having someone to talk to.
By making a donation, you will help the Association to provide a listening ear to patients and to purchase high-technology equipment in order to continue to improve their comfort.
Our support volunteers
Among the members of the Association, certain individuals – the “support volunteers” – spend some of their free time with patients who have shown that they need someone to talk to when admitted to the CHPG. Before becoming support volunteers, they follow several training sessions provided by doctors and therapists.
Visits are made on a daily basis in pairs, according to a schedule established at the beginning of the month by the person in charge of the volunteers. Visits and events for the month in question are listed on this document: afternoon drinks/snacks, dinners, conferences, talk groups, outings etc. so that each volunteer is kept up to date and is able to talk about the Association’s activities. Ecoute, Réconfort (Listening, Comfort): these two words symbolise the work of all our volunteers.
Our group is made up of 20 people: offering patients the compassion and understanding of various countries: Monaco, France, Finland, Holland, Italy, Ireland, England, Morocco, Great Britain, Asia, United States…
Come and join us!
Become a volonteer
Volunteering is a commitment, a well-thought-out decision, a desire which matures deep within you, and which one day takes on a special meaning. (more…)
Annual fee
The Association’s activities are many - to listen and to help cancer patients and their families in particular. We need dedicated members and volunteers to provide them with all the comfort necessary.
Our “Wellness Centre”
In June 2009, the Monegasque Association ECOUTE CANCER RECONFORT opened a community centre dedicated to the well-being of cancer sufferers – a warm and welcoming environment where they can meet others, receive support and enjoy various activities, enabling them to regain energy, cope with the disease and escape from isolation.
A unique and warm environment
The centre is open to everyone affected by cancer – those undergoing treatment or in remission, as well as relatives and friends, from Monaco and the neighbouring area.
ECR's motivations
The centre meets the needs of the patients visited by ECR’s support volunteers, and those of their families. Many sufferers living in the Principality used to have to travel to Nice for such activities and to break out of their isolation.
A place to meet up, find support and enjoy various activities
The centre does not provide medical care but is a place where visitors can meet others, share experiences and enjoy a chat. The centre provides socio-aesthetic services, nutritional advice, a relaxation area, social support and cultural workshops.The workshops, run by professional contributors, include: creative and cultural workshops (e.g. singing, painting, reading), mild exercise classes, Taï Chi, beauty care (learn how to care for yourself), psychological support, relaxation, reflexology, classes on appropriate diet and nutrition.
The Centre’s Café offers visitors an area where they can meet up, find a listening ear and chat to others in a relaxed setting –with the support of ECOUTE CANCER RECONFORT’s volunteers, who endeavour to help each member regain a peaceful and settled daily life.
Tous les services proposés
Support Volunteer Charter
C.H.P.G. MONACO SUPPORT VOLUNTEER CHARTER
Day Hospital : Doctor GARNIER (Head of Department)
Doctor STEFANELLI
Doctor LESCAUT
Internal Medicine : Doctor TAILLAN
A visit by a volunteer is a non-professional activity based on a contract implied in fact between one individual who freely agrees to make some of his/her free time and listening skills available, and another individual demonstrating the need for support and company.
The support volunteers working for the Association “ECOUTE CANCER RECONFORT” agree:
- To be lenient and lucid and to have a good understanding of themselves.
- To work in cooperation with the team of doctors and nurses, accompanying relatives and the patient.
- To act with respect for the convictions and opinions of each individual, not to represent any religion.
- Not to intervene in medical, parmedical or administrative matters. Any such action is prohibited.
- To respect the confidentiality of information that may come their way concerning the establishment, staff and the individual him/herself. A support volunteer who gives out information pertaining to a patient or information overheard within the department shall be expelled from the team.
- To be tactful and never to ask personal questions.
- To leave the room as soon as a doctor or nurse arrives.
- To create a climate of trust and a restful environment, by adopting a calm and relaxed attitude and by remaining impartial.
- To let the patient express him/herself and not to monopolise the conversation.
- To know how to modulate the length of the visit so as not to tire the patient.
- To remain a volunteer and not create too many emotional ties.
- Should a patient not wish to continue the conversation, to know how to retreat quietly without feeling that the situation is a personal failure.
- Visits in pairs are compulsory.
- No judgements are to be made between volunteers.
- To take part in the various training sessions on a compulsory basis.
- To take part in the Association’s leisure events (afternoon snacks, lectures, outings, dinners).
- To have finished his/her treatment.
The action carried out by support volunteers at the hospital is collective charitable action organised by Ecoute Cancer Réconfort. The quality of such action is guaranteed by the following commitments:
- The Association signing the charter selects the volunteers it appoints
- The Association decides when visits begin
- It gives the volunteers the necessary understanding and provides continuous psychological training
- It monitors and supervises the teams
- It ensures regularity and continuity in all planned undertakings
ANYONE WHO FAILS TO OBSERVE ONE OF THE POINTS IN THIS CHARTER SHALL BE DISQUALIFIED.
« A patient has the right to protect his/her private life »
Our Previous Activities
Thanks to the donations we receive, our Association helps to ensure that adult and child patients benefit from high-technology equipment. The Association has funded several projects including:
- A blood heater,
- Anti-bedsore mattresses, fluidised beds, chemotherapy pumps, wheelchairs
- Head rests for ENT and encephalon treatments to enable the position to be held more efficiently
- Inclined cushions enabling improved stability of the pelvis throughout treatment
- An automatic polystyrene cutting machine to produce customised covers, enabling the precision and quality of radiation to be increased.
- A P.C.R. machine enabling the laboratory to study the genome
- A digital camera and two motorised microscopes compatible with the TRIBVN digital image station.