Volunteerism among older people with arthritis

Research attention has turned towards investigating the motivations and exp eriences of those who volunteer under conditions that benefit both giver an d recipient. The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivation Of 22 o lder volunteers as they embarked on training to become lay leaders of an ar thritis self-management programme. Data were collected through semistructur ed telephone interviews at two points in time, before training and six week s after training. Volunteerism was motivated by three key needs: to fill th e vocational void left by retirement, to feel a useful member of society by helping others and to find a peer group. These key motivations remained im portant throughout the six weeks of the study. The costs of volunteering we re perceived as time, responsibility, invasion of social life, failure, anx iety, and the duration and intensity of training, Nonetheless, older volunt eers valued finding a purpose, reported less pain and an increased desire t o 'get on with life'. Results suggest that volunteering in later life can h elp to offset losses associated with retirement and decline in health. Furt her research, incorporating standard measures of health status, is needed i f the impact of volunteering on the health of this study population is to b e more fully understood.