ASU Student Volunteers Make a Difference at Dementia Campus

Volunteers are a vital part of Hospice of the Valley’s Dementia Care and Education Campus, and Arizona State University student volunteers Ethan Best and Chinmay Malik are passionate about volunteering. Both are Medical Studies majors at ASU’s College of Health Solutions.

Best originally began volunteering at Hospice of the Valley’s Supportive Care for Dementia Program after hearing that it was a meaningful experience.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I was volunteering at someone's house and just was there to hang out with them. It was a great time.”

Best then went on to volunteer at the Adult Day Club at the campus, a place for those with dementia to engage in fun activities, including Tai Chi, yoga, crafts and other activities.

Best remembers when a club member got him out of his shell with a simple question: “Do you play football?”

Best told him he used to play football in eighth grade, but not in high school. “He was talking about how he went to ASU and played football on their football team. I was telling him about how I go to ASU, and then we spent the next hour and a half or two hours just talking.”

Best and Malik volunteer with the same person and have cultivated many memories during their time together. When asked what they’ve learned from volunteering at the Dementia Care and Education Campus, they both said patience.

“This experience has humbled me,” said Malik. “In many aspects, it opened my eyes” and provided perspective.

To Malik, volunteering has helped him “realize the reality of life itself.” Both Best and Malik cherished their volunteering experience; they felt that they were making a difference that they could actually see with their own eyes.

The spouse of their patient “was very grateful for us. She really appreciated the time that she could get alone, because we were there for two hours,” said Best. “So she could go read or take a nap. She didn’t have to worry about her husband and she could see the benefits for her husband.”

Hospice of the Valley’s Dementia Care and Education Campus is always accepting volunteers with an open heart and willingness to learn. Visit the volunteer section for details.

Written by the ASU Cronkite Agency