Volunteering in NHS significantly increased volunteers’ overall life satisfaction

Levels of wellbeing increased significantly for individuals who participated in the NHS Volunteer Responders (NHSVR) programme, with effects lasting months after the volunteering period had ended. This is according to new research from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the National Health Service (NHS) and Royal Voluntary Service.

In a survey of more than 9,000 active participants on the NHSVR programme, the researchers found that even small acts of volunteering, including talking to at-risk individuals on the phone or helping to deliver groceries boosted participants sense of wellbeing and increased feelings of belonging within the local community.

Importantly, the authors found that the positive impacts on wellbeing lasted up to three months after the last task had been completed. Volunteers who carried out a task, for example, rated their life satisfaction as 0.17 points (on a scale of 0-10) higher, than those who had volunteered but not yet carried out a task. That increase equates to 25% of the size of being employed as opposed to being unemployed.

Paul and his co-authors recommended that the NHSVR programme be used as a model to replicate in society, both at local and national levels, to increase wellbeing. Paul said: “The NHS Volunteer Responders was the largest mobilisation of pro-social action in the UK since the end of the WWII. The programme shows just how good helping other people can feel. We could take the lessons and impacts from this programme as a model for a National Volunteering System (NVS)."

You can read the full research paper here.