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HEALTH CARE VOLUNTEER PROGRAMS

This page is devoted to the management of volunteer programs in health care settings.

 

~February 2012~

Beware of Perpetrators

BEWARE OF PERPETRATORS

You have scheduled the interview, prepared all necessary materials and cleared your calendar with enough time to meet with the potential volunteer.  As you begin the interview process asking questions and actively listening, beware of perpetrators. Perpetrator refers to someone committing any type of illegal act.

Once a major concern, the wide use of criminal background checks by most agencies has reduced the cause for alarm for volunteer managers.  Still yet, there are perpetrators who widanger signll try just about anything to get their foot in the door.  Some things to watch for as you talk with the potential volunteer include:

 

  • A checkered history of very short-term employment that could indicate lack of commitment to any organization or even repeated firing from employment.
  • A history of periods of non-employment time which could indicate time incarcerated.
  • Someone who has been perpetrated (a victim themselves) may no longer place any value (positive or negative) on the behavior.
  • Someone who exhibits behavior or talks only about the primary relationships with the group they perpetrate.
  • Someone who is more animated when talking about the primary group they perpetrate.
  • Someone who is very rigid and inflexible in his or her values.

While each one of these is by no means a measure of inappropriate behavior, your job as the interviewer is to establish a rapport, watch the body language of the potential volunteer and keep an eye out for warning signs or ticking bombs.  Pay attention to your gut feelings and intuition.  What things make you uncomfortable?  In fairness, probe deeper to try to determine what it is that makes you feel uncomfortable.

The result is knowing that you did due diligence in the interview process, making sure that the potential volunteer is a good match for the organization. 

Want to learn more about understanding perpetrators?  Pick up The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker, a presidential appointee whose work helps evaluate threats to government officials and regular citizens who are victims of stalking and domestic abuse.

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The author of the Heath Care Volunteer Programs column is Mary Kay Hood MS, Hendricks Regional Health, Danville, IN (317) 745-3556. With a BS degree in biology from Marian College and a Master of Science in Management from Indiana Wesleyan University, Mary Kay has been involved in volunteer management over twenty years with a zoo and in the health care field. During that time, she completed the Management of Volunteer Programs course offered at University of Indianapolis, several supervisory training programs as well as the Indiana Hospital and Health Association’s Management Institute offered by the Executive Education Program, School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. Mary Kay served on the Nonprofit Training Center of United Way from 1993 to 2006. During that time, she taught many workshops also facilitating speaker arrangements for the Basic Volunteer Management series. Additionally, she has presented at various national and international conferences. Mary Kay served as president of the Central Indiana Association for Volunteer Administration (CIAVA) from 1993-1997 and the Indiana Society of Directors of Volunteer Services (ISDVS) from 2006-2008. She was also the recipient of the 1995 Outstanding Director of Volunteer Services Award and the 2002 United Way of Central Indiana Volunteer of the Year Award. Most recently she served on the Steering Committee for COVAA resulting in the formation of a new national membership organization for those in volunteer management, the Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (AL!VE). With several published articles, she is also author to two books: The One Minute Answer to Volunteer Management Questions and The Volunteer Leader as Change Agent.
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