Austin Mitchell and Ann Syrett present this series of programmes promoting voluntary and community service, focusing on people in the community who give up their own time to help others. The programme aims to provide a clear understanding of the nature and the extent of voluntary work that's done, or needs to be done in many areas of social need throughout the Yorkshire region. This episode is about work done by hospital volunteers and includes studio interviews with Bill Moore,...

Austin Mitchell and Ann Syrett present this series of programmes promoting voluntary and community service, focusing on people in the community who give up their own time to help others. The programme aims to provide a clear understanding of the nature and the extent of voluntary work that's done, or needs to be done in many areas of social need throughout the Yorkshire region. This episode is about work done by hospital volunteers and includes studio interviews with Bill Moore, Margaret Brown, and Denise Rayner. Title: Yorkshire Television – Colour Production Photographs of urban street scenes and candid shots of individuals make up the opening for the programme. Title: A Matter for Concern In the studio Austin Mitchell and Ann Syrett sit opposite their three guests who will be interviewed later in the programme. Austin Mitchell opens the programme and includes some information regarding responses to earlier programmes. Ann Syrett sitting next to Austin continues with the report. She says after a disappointing start the appeal for volunteer drivers has resulted in a good response. Title: Ann Syrett She also updates viewers on other aspects of the volunteer appeal. Austin introduces the guests. The first guest is Bill Moore who is area administrator for the North Yorkshire Area Health Authority. The second is Mrs Margaret Brown who is voluntary services organiser at St John’s hospital in Lincoln and the third guest is Denise Rayner who is a young volunteer working with elderly patients in an old people’s home in Bradford. Austin introduces the next segment of the programme looking at how volunteers work at St James hospital in Leeds, the voluntary services organiser there is Alan Hicks. On camera Alan, on location in the city, describes the hospital and its work Title: Alan Hicks – Voluntary Service Officer The film shows a direction board on a hospital access road guiding visitors to specific specialist units, including a sign pointing to social work. A minibus with ‘City of Leeds Ambulance Service’ reverses out of a parking bay. Alan continues with his description of hospital services, saying that there about 650 volunteers working at the hospital and he is a full time paid officer who co-ordinates volunteer work. The report continues in hospital as a volunteer approaches a man sitting at a table next to a bed where another patient lies. A group of volunteers distribute flowering plants around the ward. Off camera Alan explains that the flowers are supplied by the League of Friends through a contract with a local florist, the project helps create a more informal look to the ward. The film shows the exterior entrance to the W.R.V.S. (Women’s Royal Voluntary Service) Shop and Tea bar, Alan describes it as an important part of the voluntary work in the hospital. At the edge of a service road a trolley is being loaded with items for sale. Alan says the trolley service is also operated by the W.R.V.S. and is in effect a mobile shop visiting daily most of the wards in the hospital. The film moves to hospital reception area. A woman guides a patient to a wheelchair. Off camera Alan describes the casualty hostess service which operates right through the day and into the evening. The woman helps the patient to get comfortable in the chair and they call at reception where the patient’s personal details are recorded. Alan also says that they also have men as casualty hosts doing this work. The volunteers then take the patients to an appropriate treatment unit. A tea bar along one of the corridors Alan says is also looked after by volunteers mainly recruited from the townswomen’s guilds in Leeds and is open for most of the day. Another sort of trolley which is used to bring items to patients is the library trolley. A notice attached to a trolley reads, St. John & Red Cross Hospital Library – This Library Service Is Free To All Patients – Please ask for the books you want to read. A woman stops next to a man sitting in his chair and asks him if he wants a book. Alan, off camera describes how the service is organised by the British Red Cross and the St John Ambulance. The volunteer helps the man choose a book. For those who cannot read, relatives and some volunteers can use the service to read to the patient if appropriate. Another volunteer reads to patient sitting in a chair who listens attentively to a story of a miller supplying food for animals kept in village smallholdings. A woman collects a meal from a trolley delivering meals to a ward. Alan Hicks describes another role for volunteers, helping patients with their meals. Some patients sit at a table and eat without assistance others have a volunteer on hand at the table to help with eating the meal, another volunteer feeds someone in bed. Title: David Mangeolles – Volunteer David talks of his experiences working with old people in hospital, who describes the relationships built up between volunteer and patient. David plays dominoes with another patient as he describes his work off camera. On camera he describes how awkward situations with tending to a patient’s needs can have a funny side. Volunteers Judith and Brenda gives an exercise session to a group of patients. Alan Hicks off camera talks about an ongoing trial in having a volunteers known as physiotherapist aids working with patients. Outside the hospital Alan Hicks talks of how paid staff welcome volunteers coming into the hospital, and if the staff feel volunteers threaten their job in some way, Alan explains that it is his job to ensure paid staff are fully informed of the role of the volunteer. Alan talks about the long history of volunteers providing care for the sick from the Middle Ages to organisations such as the Red Cross, St John Ambulance and League of Friends. In Alan’s view the greatest contribution that the volunteer can give is personal contact and the time to do duties that nursing staff, because of other pressures, can’t provide. The programme goes back to the studio and the three guests. Austin Mitchell asks the first guest if they use volunteers in the same way that St James hospital in Leeds does. Title: Bill Moore – Area Administrator North Yorkshire Area Health Authority Bill answers that they do but additionally they have psychiatric patients and units for the younger disabled and younger chronically sick patients, where volunteers are used to great effect. Title: Margaret Brown – Vol. Services Organiser – St. John’s Hosp. Lincoln Margaret explains the work that volunteers undertake at the psychiatric hospital. The Women’s Royal Voluntary Service runs the canteen and a shop. Other volunteers work on the wards and helping the occupational therapy department. School pupils visit as volunteers on the wards and will play cards, dominoes and bingo with the patients. There are problems at times recruiting volunteers for a psychiatric hospital, due mainly to misinformation about the nature of the institution. Margaret also says that some patients benefit by going out to other voluntary organisations such as the Women’s Institute and Townswomen’s Guild. Title: Denise Rayner – Volunteer Denise works in an old people’s home, she outlines the kinds of conversations she has with the older people. She says that she has had conversations about their past life at work and at school and she has discussions about the royal family which is a popular topic. She enjoys the work and its rewards in making people happy by her visit. Ann Syrett asks Margaret about staff relations with volunteers which she says is mostly good. The guests also talk about retention of volunteers and the type of personality that they look for especially when working with some psychiatric patients, where progress can be slow. Ann Syrett talks generally about working at a hospital as a volunteer. She gives out the address people should contact if they are interested in becoming a volunteer. Title: ‘Concern’ Yorkshire Television Television Centre Leeds LS3 1JS Austin And Ann close the programme. Credits: Presenters – Ann Syrett, Austin Mitchell Camera – Mostafa Hammuri Sound – Ron Gunn Film Editor – Alwyn Jones Graphics - Brian Beardmore Researcher – Irene Cockroft Producer – Jim McCann Yorkshire Television Colour Production End Title - © Trident Television Ltd 1976