ROCKPORT — Pen Bay Medical Center has partnered with a local organization to bring hospice volunteers to its Volunteer Services department.

Pen Bay and Coastal Family Hospice in Rockland will now provide volunteers with specific hospice training and education to support comfort care patients at the hospital and their family members.

“Volunteers provide an invaluable benefit and help provide care and support throughout our hospitals,” said Jamie Geretz, director of Volunteer Services and Spiritual Care at Pen Bay and Waldo, in a news release. “Before this partnership, Pen Bay did not have a dedicated hospice volunteer program, and now these volunteers help to fill that void and provide the resources and knowledge families need.”

Hospice volunteers sit bedside, understand the steps in the hospice process and help guide patients and their families through their experience. Waldo County General Hospital also offers hospice volunteers through its partnership with Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County. The chaplains at Waldo and Pen Bay coordinate visits for patients when someone is needed or requested.

“COVID really put a spotlight on what was missing when volunteers weren’t at the hospitals,” said Geretz. “Hospice volunteer support was a huge missing piece at Waldo and this new supplemental service is going to have a large positive impact on our Pen Bay patients and their families and will allow care team members to focus on additional patient needs throughout the hospitals.”

To become a volunteer at Pen Bay or Waldo, visit mainehealth.org/pen-bay-medical-center/ways-give/volunteer.

Pen Bay Medical Center is part of MaineHealth, a not-for-profit integrated health system consisting of nine local hospital systems, a comprehensive behavioral healthcare network, diagnostic services, home health agencies, and more than 1,600 employed and independent physicians working together through an Accountable Care Organization. With more than 19,000 employees, MaineHealth is the largest health system in northern New England and provides preventive care, diagnosis and treatment to 1.1 million residents in Maine and New Hampshire. For more information, please visit pbmc.org.