Volunteer and live longer!

“Helping others tends to increase life-spans of volunteers” has been my mantra since 1968, Having conducted research with mentally ill terminal patients has convinced me that “helpful participation” increased the life-spans significantly.

In one six months research, I worked with three groups of projected terminal patients who were helping others (experimental), attending sessions of self-interest therapy (research attention bias) and a control group of no intervention. After six months of twice-weekly sessions, those in the latter two groups continued deterioration. The experimental “helping” group saw increases in health, attitude, and projected life-spans!

Over the years, many other studies suggested that volunteering helps people live longer, increases positive attitudes, increases their brain activity levels and some went on to enter personal-service fields.

A 2013 review of health effects found that regular help to others, such as serving food at a soup kitchen, assuming responsibilities as a group's officer or reading to the blind, reduced early mortality rates by 22%.

A 2020 review of the Longitudinal Study on Aging found that frequent volunteers tended to live longer than those who didn't, even when other factors like medical status, physical activity, and social integration were taken into account.

The use of volunteers helps both parties (volunteers & agencies). The obvious benefit to the recipients is that labor is received at little-to-no costs. But there are greater number of benefits to the volunteers!

BENEFITS OF YOU AS A VOLUNTEER INCLUDE:

--- aiding in reducing the risks of onset dementia.

--- the brain continuing to rebuild and strengthen previous connections (neuro-plasticity) faster than it's deterioration.

--- experiencing new, satisfying activities tend to automatically generate new connections which are enhanced if the experience is satisfying!

--- expanding interactions with other like-minded other volunteers creates new social communities.

--- being seen as “giving persons” who care enough to take the time and energy to solve the problems of less fortunate neighbors.

--- increasing one's self-esteem, especially when experiencing new activities and learning new skills to solve problems in the future.

--- reinforcing and expanding previous skills. Such things learned in the past tend to decay (forgetfulness) if not recalled on occasion.

--- helping develop interests in new skills, languages, nomenclatures and elevating the confidence levels to pursue new subjects.

--- volunteering increases acceptance of diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice.

--- one's personal ego is enhanced, feel more accomplished and satisfied with their time spent serving others.

--- the connections people make and the time they spend volunteering can spark many health and wellness benefits that increase their life expectancy and the quality in which they live.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual hours spent volunteering ranges from 36 hours for those under 35 years old to 94 hours for those age 65 and over

There are thousands of groups that can use volunteers such as you. All you have to do and ask yourself

--- “What do I like to do and what group is best suited to benefit from my interests and energies?”

For an example: knowing that I enjoy helping fellow military veterans, love to travel and often camp in a motor home, I looked for a group in the U.S. that meets all these criteria. I finally chose the national organization of veterans who are “Seeing the country we defend.”

The Special Military Active Recreational Travelers (S*M*A*R*T) organization has more than 20 chapters and groups throughout the U.S. Hundreds of veterans working together as volunteers, they assist local veterans, their charities and chapters, organize inexpensive caravans, hold seminars at rallies (called “musters”) and maintain communication with fellow veterans. Information at https://www.smartrving.org/

For years, this group met my interests of RV-ing, recreation, helping veterans, learning new skills, etc... Now, each of you, as readers, need to write down what you seek to do, as a volunteer, and choose among the thousands of agencies out there waiting for you to join them!

If you want to measure how satisfied you, or your colleagues, are in any work or volunteering situation, a draft of my brief ( 2 - 3 minutes) assessment was designed in Biloxi, MS and is at https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/work-satisfaction-scale-finkle-ph-d-cfp-professor-emeritus--rfi1c/

Louis J. Finkle, Ph.D., CFP retired