This is the second part of a two-part series highlighting United Hospital Fund’s Women’s Division and its evolution and impact over six decades. Find part one here.
Originally formed as the Women’s Division of United Hospital Fund, UHF’s Division of Voluntary Programs left an undeniable footprint on the organization and New York’s health care landscape for nearly a century.
The Division was formed in 1935 with the task of “increasing through an organized effort the public’s knowledge of hospitals, and the great field that is open for women in helping to meet their need,” according to a 50-year history of the division. It later evolved into the Committee on Voluntary Initiatives.
Capitalizing on the distinctive role of health care volunteers, the Division far exceeded its original challenge in the many decades to come. Throughout the years, its members—still predominantly women—helped identify and address the health and social needs of New Yorkers while simultaneously raising awareness about, and sustaining the success of, the voluntary sector.
“From its very first breath in the spring of 1935, the Women’s Division of the United Hospital Fund…was perceived as an agent for change,” a historical report on the Division's first 50 years reads. “The unique strength and credibility of health care volunteers empower them to deal effectively with the most pressing issues confronting health care.”
Responding to Needs
Recognizing volunteers as a bridge between the community and the health care system, the Division focused many of its efforts on educating the public about complex and pressing issues facing the health and health care of New Yorkers.
Beginning in the 1960s, the division sought to educate students about careers in health care. This included a government-funded program for high school counselors, career days in hospitals, and a publication on health careers.
In the 1970s, education programs for the general public included one of the first parenting education classes to prevent child abuse, a public education program on health planning, and a series of “Road Shows” about hospital costs, health system agencies, and other topics.
The Division continued to host community outreach projects in the 1980s, tackling issues such as women and alcoholism, “living with dying,” and family violence. The decade also included an exploration of ethical issues like the right to confidentiality and access to health care and volunteering in a time of personnel cutbacks.
“From the beginning, the Division has recognized the fact that volunteers serve the health care field not only through important ‘hands-on’ service, but also as educators, catalysts, and advocates,” the 50-year history of the Division reads.
Moving the Needle
The Division’s role as a bridge between the community and health care system also took the form of reporting on health care quality.
This included the impact of the longstanding watchdog group, The City Hospital Visiting Committee, which became part of the Division in the 1950s. For decades, the committee monitored patient care by making regular visits to the city’s public hospitals, neighborhood family care centers, and offsite programs and reporting their findings. Their insights remained a helpful barometer of the city’s health system well into the 1990s, with their regular visits reporting on overall conditions and revealing gaps in care related to the AIDS crisis, substance abuse, and prenatal care, to name just a few.
“Over the years, Committee members have played an active role in giving these patients a voice—commenting, criticizing, and pleading for change and improvement,” Mary Windels, a former senior staff associate with the committee, said in UHF’s 1987/88 Annual Report. “And, remarkably, they’ve been able to bring tangible improvements to a vast system simply—or not so simply—through hard work and caring.”
A similar watchdog group was the Division’s Committee on Nursing Homes-Long Term Care, also formed in the 1950s. The committee was created to observe and report on conditions in New York City nursing homes.
These findings were shared not only with hospital social service departments and related agencies that make nursing home referrals, but also with lawmakers.
“The Committee has actively raised the awareness of legislators concerning the need for mandated reporting of patient abuse in nursing homes, to cite but one of its major accomplishments,” reads a 100-year anniversary profile of UHF entitled A Century of Service & The Years Ahead. “It has also initiated a program of visits to patients who are transferred from hospitals to nursing homes, to ease the transition and to see that patients’ needs are known and met.”
The Division also made regular appeals to lawmakers through its Committee on Legislation, volunteers who regularly visited Albany and Washington to keep abreast of issues and initiated forums and newsletters to share learning on hospital cost containment, health planning, and national health insurance.
Volunteers also helped influence legislation to aid patients suffering from end-stage renal disease, drug and alcohol use, psychological disorders, and problems associated with aging.
Raising the Standard
A significant part of the Division of Voluntary Programs’ work was helping elevate and sustain the important role of health care volunteers.
The Division awarded “service pins” that hospital volunteers across the city proudly wore, identifying their years of volunteer hours. Plus, it sponsored conferences aimed at improving volunteer service, including the first conference of directors of volunteer services in the country and the first Annual Joint Auxiliary Conference, which was co-sponsored with the Hospital Association of New York State.
In the 1960s, the Division began its publication of a series of guides to establish operating procedures and standards for auxiliaries, patient libraries, volunteer service programs, and health career programs.
“The United Hospital Fund is committed to stimulating and guiding citizen concern on behalf of hospitals and the more than seven million New Yorkers who depend on them for care,” Bruce C. Vladeck, former president of United Hospital Fund, wrote in the 50-year history of the Division. “This commitment implies a continuing reexamination of the nature of volunteer activity itself, as well as a continual search to identify ways in which the services of volunteers, in a world always short of adequate services, can most productively be utilized.”
These lessons were even taken to the younger generation. Also in the 1960s, The Division sponsored a unique project to integrate the concepts of volunteering into the curriculum of primary school grades. This initiative aimed to “foster in children a positive attitude toward volunteering and community service.”
A Lasting Legacy
United Hospital Fund’s impact on hospital volunteerism persisted even as the formal Division of Voluntary Programs came to an end in the late 1980s and the Committee on Voluntary Initiatives was formed.
Under the new Committee, UHF began an annual celebration honoring volunteers and auxilians in 1994, recognizing “exceptional service” to hospitals and hospital divisions throughout the greater New York metropolitan area. The citywide tribute was held for 23 years, filling the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria annually.
“If there is one event a year that best reaffirms the goodness of people, it's easy to make a case that it's this one,” then-UHF President Jim Tallon said at the final Hospital Auxilian and Volunteer Achievement Awards in 2016. “The volunteers we honor today give more than their time and their skills...They are a part of the tradition of volunteer service that has long played an important role in the delivery of our region's health care services, and clearly, the tradition is alive and well.”
The Committee on Nursing Homes-Long Term Care also ran the annual Nursing Aides and Orderlies Awards ceremony in the late 1980s and 1990s to recognize the often overlooked but vital role of nursing aides and orderlies in enhancing the quality of life of nursing home residents.
In addition to its own projects over the years, UHF’s volunteer division, and later committee, awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to hospital-based volunteer initiatives each year through a grant program, eventually known as the Hospital Auxiliary and Volunteer Program. These grants helped fund countless projects to support the efforts of tens of thousands of volunteers annually, including patient care programs, domestic violence programs, health promotion programs, and programs that reduce cultural barriers to care.
Regardless of its form, United Hospital Fund’s volunteer programs served as a pillar to the city’s volunteer force for nearly a century, supporting their critical efforts on the frontlines of care.