Yale Students Bring Compassion to Connecticut Hospice

Yale Undergraduates at Connecticut Hospice (YUCH) is a volunteer organization and Dwight Hall member group that brings Yale students to accompany and support terminally ill patients at The Connecticut Hospice in Branford. In addition to providing a steady stream of volunteers who offer company and emotional support to terminally ill people, YUCH trains “future leaders in medicine who understand both the joy in clinical care and the resilience of the human spirit.”

YUCH’s mission “to honor patients and families with advanced or life-limiting illnesses with integrity, support, and compassion,” is supported by Dwight Hall operationally and financially. Dwight Hall supports member groups by providing transportation, funding for operational expenses, organizational guidance, and resources to help expand their volunteer reach. Member groups also have access to Dwight Hall vehicles to support their service and programming throughout the community. For YUCH, that means that volunteers can seamlessly get to and from Connecticut Hospice. Furthermore, Dwight Hall’s financial and organizational support allows volunteers to focus on patient care, as meals and other operational expenses are covered.

Cindy Cai ’28, President of YUCH, shared reflections on her experience volunteering with the organization. Cindy first became interested in YUCH as a first-year after shadowing at a hospital and witnessing two patients receiving palliative care at the end of their lives. “While those experiences were emotionally difficult, they also revealed to me the beauty of palliative care,” Cindy explained. “To me, palliative care represents a different kind of hope, that even when treatment options are limited, there are still people who want to show up to support patients because they care about who the patients are as people,” she added. “Volunteers support nursing staff, offer art/music therapy, companionship, and conversation,” Cindy shared. This kind of care complements the work of doctors and nurses by providing additional support for patients’ emotional, social, and spiritual needs.

Edis Mesic ’28 serves as the Director of Training and Shift Coordination for YUCH and offered more insights into the volunteer experience and the importance of YUCH’s mission. “You meet so many different people… each patient is a new perspective, a new person with a story to tell… and I’m just beyond grateful to be able to be there for them as a volunteer,” he said. Like Edis, many volunteers are interested in careers in medicine and YUCH offers a perspective to medical care that is primarily focused on the patients’ emotional needs. “No amount of studying biochemistry, organic chemistry, or doing research in a lab will prepare you for what it feels like to have those interactions with patients,” Edis shared.

YUCH also connects Yale volunteers to patients who are interested in sharing their stories. “Volunteers will meet with patients and/or their families upon receiving a request for a life story. They will sit with them and listen to their story, crafting a unique narrative that will then be given to whomever the patients and their families wish,” states its website. This work offers families and loved ones an invaluable piece of writing celebrating the life of the patient, and it allows the terminally ill a voice and someone to hear them.

“If [students are] interested in medicine, interested in serving the community… I would say that Connecticut Hospice is such an incredible way to contribute to the community, to help patients, and to build a really, really strong sense of empathy,” Edis shared.

“Service opportunities like YUCH are meaningful because they allow students to form genuine connections with patients whose experiences may be very different from their own. Through YUCH, volunteers have the opportunity to engage with patients, hear their stories, and understand them as individuals beyond their illnesses,” added Cindy.

As a Dwight Hall member group, YUCH embodies the Engage pillar of Dwight Hall’s Engage, Grow, and Advance program delivery model, forging meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships between Yale students and greater New Haven community partners from as early as their first arrival on campus.

If you are interested in learning more about Yale Undergraduates at Connecticut Hospice, please access the website here.