Help us by volunteering
Do you want to help your community? Your local community suffers from high levels of heart disease and includes many people who have not been diagnosed as yet.
Just an hour of volunteering work may help save a life.
How you can help us:
- At our weekly information desk at Ealing Hospital on Mondays.
- At our Community Hub
- Campaigning in the community to raise awareness about heart disease is one of our key aims. We regularly run stalls and make presentations at a variety of venues, including places of worship, community groups and organisations, exercise and sports clubs, health centres etc.
- You may have particular skills that you could use to help us run our organisation
Call us for a chat or email us about what you could do if you are interested
- see our contact details by clicking HERE.
The role of volunteers in our Heart Health Campaign
Heartlink is actively recruiting volunteers for its Community Heart Health Campaign. Our aim is to train volunteers to become Community Health Champions to promote health and well-being in local communities in Southall, Ealing and West London. For full details of OUR CAMPAIGN click HERE.
We are offering a range of training opportunities to suit individual volunteers, enabling them to raise their knowledge and understanding of a range of health conditions associated with heart disease.
Topics on offer during training will include:
Heart conditions
Medications
Diabetes
Kidney disease
Strokes
Healthy eating
Smoking and vaping
Exercise
Basic life support & CPR training
Communication skills
SEE FURTHER DOWN THIS PAGE FOR THE FULL LIST OF OUR TRAINING TOPICS
Volunteers will choose topics for study that are of interest to them and that they feel able to share during volunteering opportunities. They will initially work with experienced members of Heartlink and once proficient in their chosen area will work independently when needed.
We want you to feel confident and able to work in your own community and your own groups and organisations to raise awareness of heart health issues. We will provide you with leaflets, booklets and information to help you.
Our training programme for volunteers
If you are interested in volunteering for Heartlink please complete our application form.
There is no charge to our volunteers for their involvement in our training programme.
Initially we will ask you to complete training to improve your knowledge in your chosen area(s) of heart disease and associated subjects.
Our training programme uses the following approaches:
1. Self-study accessing selected websites which give you good information about a wide range of topics (See next section).
2. Special Heartlink seminars by qualified trainers and heart health professionals.
3. Specialist courses provided by a few selected third party organisations.
4. ‘Make Every Contact Count' (MECC) training to help you in your work of talking to and assisting others.
You will have the opportunity to discuss your chosen area(s) of focus with a member of the Heartlink Committee.
We also aim to provide our volunteers with a range of signposting information which will enable them to tell people where best to go for the different services they may need.
Online training via our website
As part of our training programme, our volunteers are asked to do some studying by working their way through the helpful advice information on our 'ADVICE AND LINKS' page HERE. The topics for which we have provided information are grouped under the headings: Common Heart Conditions, Risk Factors, Tests and Treatments. Under each topic, as well as a link to useful information, we have included a link to a short video which which will help our volunteers to access important information and enhance their knowledge.
More topics for volunteers
In addition to the information provided under our ADVICE and LINKS page we have provided below for our volunteers links to more detailed background information to ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT HEALTH TOPICS - many of these have links to useful short videos. These topics are as follows:
Diabetes
Exercise
Kidney Disease
Smoking
Stress
Coping after a diagnosis of heart disease
You may experience various types of emotional distress or behavioural disturbance. Problems such as depression and anxiety are especially common. These conditions not only affect your emotional state but can also impact on your symptoms of heart disease.
Fortunately, there are effective treatments for depression and anxiety available, including psychological interventions such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and antidepressant medication.
Addressing these problems will make it easier to follow your heart disease treatment plan. Your healthcare professional (including your GP or cardiac rehabilitation nurse) will be able to help assess any concerns you have regarding your psychological wellbeing.
See the following helpful PRESENTATION on how to cope HERE
Understanding stress - HERE
Getting help with stress - HERE
Ealing Talking Therapies - HERE
NHS Help - HERE
Help with stress and anxiety - HERE
Strokes
Vaping
For information about the dangers of Vaping click HERE
Although vaping is considered to be safer than smoking cigarettes or tobacco it still has risks. In the UK it is advised that vaping can be used as an aid to quit smoking but should not be taken up by those who have not previously smoked cigarettes or tobacco.
The rise in youth vaping has skyrocketed in the past few years, with the colourful packaging and sweet flavours seen as appealing to children. It is also extremely easy for children to get their hands on single use vapes.
It is important to distinguish between vapes that are licensed for sale in the UK and those that are not. The latter may contain dangerous chemicals and/or illegally high levels of nicotine.
Your responsibilities as a volunteer - Data Protection
Watch a short helpful video HERE
Your responsibilities as a volunteer - Safeguarding others
The vital principles of safeguarding others that you must follow HERE
Contact Us
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch with us, we're always here to help. Contact us today to learn more about our organization and how you can get involved.
'Make Every Contact Count' (MECC) and other courses
The Make Every Contact Count (MECC) online learning programme is designed to support you to develop an understanding of public health and the factors that impact on a person’s health and wellbeing.
It focuses on how to talk to people, ask them questions and listen to them effectively so that you can help them make changes in their lives which will improve their health.
It helps you find the best way to listen to and discuss with the people you are trying to assist.
MECC does not expect you to be an expert in a certain health topic or condition. It is an approach to having a conversation.
Other 'Paid For' Training
St John’s Ambulance CLICK HERE
Red Cross CLICK HERE
Full list of training topics for our volunteers
Common heart conditions
Angina
Atrial fibrillation
Cardiomyopathy
Coronary heart disease
Heart attack
Heart failure
Heart valve disease
Palpitations
Stroke
Risk factors
Alcohol
Diabetes
Diet
High blood pressure
High cholesterol
Obesity
Physical inactivity
Smoking
Stress
Tests
Blood tests
Cardiac MRI
Coronary angiogram
Echocardiogram
ECG
24 hour ECG recording
Stress test (exercise ECG)
Treatments
Ablation
Heart bypass
Heart valve replacement
Implantable cardioverter defibrillator
Medicines
Pacemaker
Statins
Stent - coronary angioplasty
More training topics for volunteers
Coping after a diagnosis of heart disease
Diabetes
Exercise
Healthy eating
Kidney disease
Smoking
Stress
Vaping
Data protection
Safeguarding
MECC training
External training courses - CPR, Red Cross