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Jan. 18, 2018
For Immediate Release
Waterloo – Wilfrid Laurier University researchers are leveraging community and international partnerships to solve important problems, ranging from preserving Pakistan’s cultural heritage to understanding volunteer recruitment and retention for hospice care within the Waterloo Region.
Through federal funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grants program and the inaugural Partnership Engage Grants program, Laurier researchers will conduct collaborative research projects that garner new knowledge and build on important community relationships.
“Engaging with the community is a unique strength of Laurier’s research ecosystem,” said Robert Gordon, vice-president: research. “This investment highlights the diversity of research happening at Laurier and the collaborative spirit of our university.”
One Laurier researcher is working with Hospice of Waterloo Region on the “Everyone Dies” project.
Cheryl-Anne Cait, an associate professor in Laurier’s Faculty of Social Work, and her research team are exploring changing volunteer demographics and the challenges of volunteer recruitment and retention in the context of hospice care in the Waterloo Region, specifically for ethno-cultural and rural communities.
Hospice care volunteers in Waterloo assist people in their homes who are at the end of their lives by providing services ranging from driving patients to medical appointments to sitting vigil.
Current research has not yet addressed the unique cultural needs and expectations of immigrant populations, nor has it analyzed the logistical challenges of volunteering in rural communities, which have larger distances between them.
“Hospice volunteers face a lot of challenges from compassion fatigue to stress to time commitment,” said Cait. “This research will address the changing needs of volunteers to help create policy around larger recruitment practices not only in hospice care but for larger volunteer-dependent organizations as well.”
Other funded Laurier research projects include:
Find more information about SSHRC’s programs. This research is supported through the Tri-Council Research Support Fund.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Robert Gordon, Vice-President
Research
Wilfrid Laurier University
T: 519.884.0710 x3601
Kevin Crowley, Director
Communications & Public Affairs
Wilfrid Laurier University
T: 519.884.0710 x3070
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