Close to people | Stories from Bethel
She is there for the dying
The elderly man is lying in bed and trembling, he is not feeling well. But when Anne-Kathrin Schmidt sits down with him, holds his hands and hums a tune, he calms down. "It's magical to experience how it does people good and touches them when you turn your attention to them," she says. Anne-Kathrin Schmidt has a special voluntary position. She is an end-of-life carer at the Bielefeld hospice association "Hospiz e.V., Bethel". She accompanies people with life-shortening illnesses in the inpatient Bethel hospice Haus Zuversicht and in the homes of the Bethel Protestant Hospital (EvKB), among others.
When Anne-Kathrin Schmidt lost a loved one in 2018, a friend recommended the "Hospiz e.V., Bethel" bereavement group to her. "My grief was stressful for me," she recalls, "but it immediately helped me to realise that there were other people who were grieving." She attended the monthly meetings for a year. "I felt supported, no longer so alone," she says, "and I realised: I go home happier afterwards." Although grief takes up a lot of space in the group, the general mood is life-affirming and cheerful. Sometimes even funny.
"I've realised that I'm good with people. See what they need. Bringing calm. Being there, holding their hand, humming or singing."
That impressed Anne-Kathrin Schmidt. So much so that she toyed with the idea of getting involved in hospice work herself. "I wanted to do something meaningful and have a balance to my job," she explains. The 34-year-old works as a project manager in the controlling department of a company. For her voluntary hospice work, she completed a 100-hour training course to become an end-of-life carer.
Anne-Kathrin Schmidt acquired basic medical knowledge, for example about the effects of painkillers. She learnt how to calm people with touch and breathing techniques, and how important it is to be aware of your own sources of strength so as not to burn out when caring for others. "But above all," she says, "I learnt an attitude: what does the other person want and need?" The subsequent 25-hour internship at Gilead I at the EvKB strengthened her resolve: "I realised that I can deal well with people in challenging situations. See what they need. Bringing calm. Being there, holding their hand, humming or singing."
Anne-Kathrin Schmidt now works three hours a week on a voluntary basis as a bereavement counsellor. She also supports the hospice association's public relations work, offers a walk for mourners once a month with other volunteers and, as a yoga teacher, also gives a yoga class once a month in Haus Zuversicht, where the "Hospiz e.V., Bethel" has its rooms. "The yoga class is also an offer for those who don't want to talk about their grief but want to take time for themselves," she says.
Dealing with death frequently is easier for her than she initially thought. "I am empathetic, but the people I accompany are not my relatives," she clarifies. Nevertheless, she is sometimes affected. Like after the death of an elderly lady whose family lives far away from Bielefeld. After her visits to the lonely woman, she kept her nephew up to date. "When she died, it touched me," says Anne-Kathrin Schmidt, "but at the same time I had a strong sense of how meaningful what I was doing was."
Text: Philipp Kreutzer | Picture: Matthias Cremer
This story simply told
Anne-Kathrin Schmidt is there for dying people. She sits with them and holds their hand. Anne-Kathrin Schmidt does this on a voluntary basis. That means she doesn't receive any money for it. Anne-Kathrin Schmidt is sad when someone dies. But she enjoys doing her voluntary work. After all, helping other people is important. And it does her good herself.
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Contact
Hospiz e.V., Bethel
Outpatient hospice service in Bielefeld
Quellenhofweg 90
33617 Bielefeld
Offers & services
Accompanying people on the last journey of their lives until death: This is the main concern of Hospiz e.V., Bethel, which was founded in 1993 by a group of committed people in Bethel. The members care for dying people, their families and friends in Bielefeld - at home, in retirement and nursing homes, hospitals or inpatient hospices. There is also a children's hospice service and support from volunteers in the inpatient children's hospice.
