The Ties that Bind: Retired Rehab Manager Skip Roy Revitalizes Peer Support Volunteer Program

With more than 50 years of dedicated service to WakeMed, Skip Roy is a treasured member of the local health care community. He began his employment with WakeMed in 1969, as a physical therapist, and was soon promoted to manager of Acute Rehabilitation Services. During his career, Skip played an invaluable role in growing the health system’s rehab continuum. In October 2012, he retired from management but soon became a supplemental physical therapist, and today he serves as a dedicated hospital volunteer. 

How does he answer the call?

A volunteer at heart, Skip offers his time to numerous local and international non-profit health care organizations. He is passionate about using his rehab expertise to help people reclaim their quality of life. Therefore, it was no surprise that Skip was tapped to reenergize the Rehab Hospital’s Peer Support Volunteer Program in 2022. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on many of the hospital’s volunteer programs, and this was no exception,” Skip explained. “While the Peer Support Volunteer Program began in 2018, it needed a dedicated program coordinator to give it the attention it deserved. When they asked me to help, I was up for the challenge.”

What is the Peer Support Volunteer Program?

The Peer Support Volunteer Program facilitates visits between current rehab patients and former patients who have re-established themselves in the community after
experiencing a stroke, life-changing injury or amputation. The program is divided into four areas of care: stroke, spinal cord injury, brain injury and limb loss/amputee; and the goal is to create supportive relationships and inspiration for patients who are in the hospital facing a long road to recovery.

“This program is about hope,” says Skip. “Trauma professionals are amazing because they can give patients their bodies back after a life-altering event. But in the
rehab world, we work to give people their lives back. Peer supporters initiate that process by giving hope.” 

To begin, rehab caregivers identify former patients who may be interested in serving as peer support volunteers. They contact the patients nine to twelve months after their hospital stay to see if there is interest in volunteering. If they decide to participate, Skip helps them navigate the WakeMed Volunteer Services application and orientation process. He then provides a program-specific orientation to get them started – and helps get them connected with current hospital patients who would like a visit from a peer support volunteer. While the WakeMed team helps coordinate the first meeting, subsequent meetings can be arranged between the patient and volunteer if desired.

“Following a major, life-changing health event, many rehab patients think that life has ended,” says Skip. “But our peer supporters show them that they can get their lives back, have families and careers, re-engage in hobbies, and much more. Life will be different, but it is not over. This realization is important to recovery.”

Skip also supports the Rehab Hospital leadership team in coordinating an annual recognition event for the peer support volunteers and writes a column for their quarterly newsletter known as ‘Skip’s Corner.’

“I am committed to this special program because I want all patients to recover and enjoy a wonderful life,” concludes Skip. “As a physical therapist, I can do a lot for my patients, but I can’t give them the same degree of understanding and hope that a former patient can. Because I haven’t lived through the same challenges, there’s only so much I can say or do to reassure them. That’s where our volunteers come in – and they are a truly remarkable asset.”

Through Skip's leadership and the unwavering support of our peer support volunteers, patients who are facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles are offered a sense of community and hope that can be truly life-changing. 

This article is reprinted from Reconnections.