Gray Nomads, Volunteering Programs. 08/26/2009
 "Best foot forward", small art fridge magnet, featuring the art of kathy Shell. There are many benefits to volunteering but you don’t have to stay at home to do it. Volunteering suits the gray nomad life style. Reg and I have looked into the National Parks host volunteer program and would be involved if it wasn't for our travel companion, Indigo. Volunteer positions Check out the Barcaldine Grey Nomads Volunteer website at http://greynomadproject.jimdo.com/ for further information. FNQ Volunteers Inc. are situated in Cairns and we cover the region between Cardwell and Mossman. Please check out our website to get more information or to volunteer www.fnqvolunteers.org The VIEW Club of Katherine is collecting pre-loved children's picture books to distribute to disadvantaged children in the region. We're keen to help Indigenous children learn to love books! If you would like to donate a picture book (no novels please) it would be greatly appreciated and put to good use. You can drop off books with Petrena at Katherine Art Gallery on the main street of Katherine as you drive through. National Parks Camp Hosting There are a number of national parks seeking reliable and trustworthy folk to camp host and/or to perform other conservation duties. Sometimes the work includes free camping in some beautiful locations and other times it may just provide the opportunity to do something worthwhile for the environment and to meet a mixture of interesting people along the way. Each state conducts its own camp hosting program which may involve interviews and training programs. To find out more, contact: Northern Territory: (08) 8999 4555 South Australia: (08) 8124 4840 Tasmania: (03) 6264 8463 Victoria: 131963 Western Australia: (08) 9334 0251 Australia Wide ‘Go Volunteer' is just one to check out: www.govolunteer.com.au. Here is an in dept report on some of the benefits of becoming a volunteer. Health News Seniors Who Volunteer May Live Longer Altruistic activities could cut the death risk in half, study finds By Serena Gordon HealthDay Reporter FRIDAY, May 8 (HealthDay News) -- Volunteering your time doesn't just help others; it turns out, it probably benefits your health, too. Retirees over 65 who volunteered had less than half the risk of dying compared to their non-volunteering peers, according to a study presented May 2 at the American Geriatrics Society annual meeting, in Chicago. "We found that volunteering remains a powerful predictor of decreased mortality among current U.S. retirees, even after extensive adjustment for possible confounding factors," wrote the study's authors. Although previous research has already shown an improvement in mortality rates among people who volunteer, the authors noted that past research has focused on people born before 1920, and that those studies haven't adjusted for all of the potential variables, such as socioeconomic status or chronic health conditions. One argument that people have made is that older people who are volunteering are likely healthier than those who choose not to volunteer, and that's one of the many possible confounding factors the current study tried to address. "Our research was building on what other people have previously done. A concern with past studies is that volunteers may be healthier to begin with. We thought we could account for this and other factors that could confound the relationship, and even after we examined those other factors, volunteers still had lower mortality," said the study's lead author, Dr. Sei Lee, an assistant professor of geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, and the San Francisco VA Medical Center. However, Lee pointed out that this study's findings are preliminary and said his research is ongoing. The study included 6,360 retired people over 65 years of age who were enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) in 2002. This study population is considered representative of older adults in the United States. The average age in the study was 78, and the study population was 60 percent female. Whether or not the study participants volunteered was assessed by asking, "Have you spent any time in the past 12 months doing volunteer work for religious, educational, health-related or other charitable organizations?" The researchers controlled the data to account for demographics, socioeconomic status, chronic health conditions, geriatric syndromes, functional limitations, a subject's propensity for volunteering, depression, cognition and self-rated health. In this initial assessment, the researchers found that 12 percent of the 1,766 volunteers in the study died compared to 26 percent of the non-volunteers. After adjusting the data, the researchers said the association between volunteering and a lower risk of mortality wasn't as strong, but that it still existed. Lee said that although they didn't study the reasons for the apparent benefit of volunteering, other researchers have, and that several factors likely play a role. One may be that volunteers have a better social network, which has been associated with lower mortality. He said that volunteering also seems to be associated with "self-efficacy" or a belief in your own abilities to accomplish certain tasks. "Staying healthy requires doing different things like quitting smoking or losing weight," explained Lee, and people who have higher self-efficacy may believe themselves more capable of accomplishing those tasks. "This is another component of a long line of work that suggests you want to remain engaged in life, and be active in as many domains as possible. Be physically active, mentally active and socially active. These are really important for staying as healthy as possible for as long as possible," said Lee. "People who are socially engaged will have a better quality of life and better survival," said Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of the division of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. "This study is a good way of using science to reinforce what's good common sense. Volunteering is a good thing to do, and lo and behold, it's good for you, too." More information Learn more about the benefits of volunteering at NationalService.gov. Comments Comments are closed. |  Images of Australia in the Paintings and Writing of Artist Author Kathy Shell are created on location while touring in an Eco-Tourer Caravan. `````````````````````````
If you would like Kathy to review, write or paint, your location, please contact the artist author with your offer. National Parks Passes Art and art print sales are available from
|
RSS Feed
