Fall 2024 Newsletter

Volunteer eNews & Notes

Ashley Howell

Manager, Volunteer Services

Happy Fall!

“Alas, summer sun can’t last forever. The days will grow cooler and shorter, and our skin will once again pale. “Sarah MacLean

It is amazing to believe the summer months have come and gone and fall is soon upon us. This summer, we had some great successes, from building our PPOM program to providing additional education on our memory care facilities and being invited to participate in our new Community Hospice & Palliative Care Veteran program. Thank you, Volunteers! Together, in the last 11 months we have grown and maintained our Mandated Medicare Match hours from 5% to 7% for utilization of volunteers. We have increased the number of patients with a volunteer visiting them, and we have grown awareness and raised volunteer and staff support for our PPOM program. These successes would not be possible without the time and commitment you give to our organization, patients and staff. I look forward to the coming months and all the exciting opportunities we have for you.

Community Hospice Volunteers of the Summer: Volunteer Shout Outs!

Barbara Joyce given an internal high 5 for going above and beyond for patients at our Hadlow Center for caring. She provides patients and their loved ones with items our Creative Hearts volunteers have made, pillows, quilts and cards. She also provides snacks via our snack cart to patients and families back in the unit.

Gina Perrone, one of our LTC/ALF volunteers. Shout out for hosting a discussion at our July roundtables about memory care, her experience and the patients she has had the privilege of meeting.

Victor Scott Fandrich, shout out for going above and beyond with our LTC/ALF patients and introducing new ways to have successful visits.

John Patterson, Shout out to our Vet to Vet volunteer, for being a huge advocate for veterans in our care and their families; helping provide resources and information to those in need.

Karen Wolfe, pet therapy volunteer, shout out and internal high 5 for taking 16 pet therapy requests in one month.

Chris Ward, shout out to for continuous support with our PPOM program helping us find community support, Vets and boarding facilities in the St Augustine area.

A big thank you to Julie Montemerlo for supporting Community Hospice and Palliative Care through selfless acts of kindness.

🙏THANK YOU so much to everyone who supported the Full Moon Fundraiser for Community Hospice in June. “I was really proud of us when I wrote the check

for ✨$1111.11 ✨as a combined gift 🎁from donors and my family in honor of my 40th birthday”! ☺️Julie Montemerlo

Volunteer Stats

Oct-May 2024 FY Stats

Volunteer Count

460 Active Volunteers
Patient Census

1330
Percent of Patient Requests Filled (YTD)

Filling over 90% of patient volunteer requests, filling an average of 100 requests monthly.
New Volunteers

60
Volunteer Service Hours

14,000
(a savings of over $168,899.92)

Pet Peace of Mind Corner

We are happy and excited to announce Community Hospice and Palliative Cares is celebrating our 10th anniversary of partnering with Pet Peace of Mind (PPOM) to assist our patients who have pets.

Since the program began in August 2014 volunteer services has re-homed 171 pets: 81 dogs and 90 cats, and assisted over 50 additional pets with socialization, medication, and vet care/transportation.

Partnering with Community Hospice, these vets have helped care for the PPOM pets. Most of our PPOM calls come in at the last minute, meaning these vets often squeeze the PPOM pets into a hectic schedule. We appreciate their help and support, and if any of these vets are familiar to you, please let them know you appreciate their support of the PPOM program also:

Cedar River Animal Hospital
Clay Humane
Homemade Hounds Bed and Biscuit
Mandarin Animal Hospital
Matanzas River Animal Hospital
Southeast Veterinary Hospital

The national PPOM organization holds an annual Volunteer of the Year award, and all hospices participating in the program (280+ hospices participate – 33 in Florida) are encouraged to submit a nomination. This year, the Volunteer of the Year went to Beth Berry! She has helped with fundraising, transportation, fostering pets and helping to get them adopted. Beth has actively sought out homes for her foster pets, successfully getting a number of them placed in their new fur-ever homes. She has fostered over 17 small dogs since 2016.

Chris Ward has also been actively helping the PPOM program by spreading the word about the program in her community of St. Augustine. She formulated an informational letter for her local veterinarians with information about the program and asked for their support. Chris also fostered a cat-friendly dog, and she adopted a PPOM cat named Reggie. Chris plans to foster additional cats at the end of the summer.

Additional training is being provided for volunteers interested in supporting the PPOM program. Volunteers are needed to help transport pets to and from vet appointments; walk dogs, sift kitty litter, keep in touch with our patients who have pets so we can help meet their needs for pet food, etc. We are always looking for foster parents willing to take a dog or cat into their home, possibly help them learn socialization skills, take pictures of the pet for social media and bring that pet to visit their former owner in the inpatient center or long-term care facility.

One of the services the Community Hospice PPOM program can provide is covering the cost of an annual exam and vaccines, should the patient be unable to fund this themselves. One of our future goals is to add the option of having the PPOM pet spayed/neutered if needed – preventing litters of puppies and kittens that the patient would otherwise have to manage.

Please contact Chris Whitney at 904.407.5204 or cwhitney@communityhospice.com, if you have any questions or want more information about Pet Peace of Mind.

Pets waiting to be adopted:

Thank You!

A big thank you to one of our Community Partners, who wants to remain anonymous, for donating 17 robotic pets and various stuffed animals for our patients and Peds patients. This fantastic contribution is in memory of his mother (who is in heaven eating orange pineapple ice cream). During her care, she had a stuffed dog named “Buddy” who she loved and who brought her comfort. He hopes to spark joy and inspire others to want to help by making this amazing contribution.

Donated Companion Pets Assigned to Volunteer

One volunteer in Lake City is excited to share her new companion pet bird with one patient. During each visit, they speak often about birds. The volunteer now has one of the donated pets to share and connect with her patient.

Ocean Wave Quilters

We received 442 heart pillows donated by our lovely volunteers at Ocean Wave Quilters. This amazing group of ladies donate two times a year and we are so blessed to be one of their organizations of choice. These pillows are given to our patients wherever they call home and receive our care.

Administrative Notes

Recruiting New Volunteers

Please help us add to the Volunteer Team by asking your relatives or friends to consider volunteering with Community Hospice & Palliative Care. The volunteer application can be found at the following link: https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?AP=1017126725 or visit Volunteer.CommunityHospice.com.

2024 Annual Volunteer Competency Assessment

To meet certain annual compliance standards, Community Hospice & Palliative Care is required to provide evidence that all Volunteers remain knowledgeable on important aspects of volunteering with our organization. These topics are typically related to patient privacy, the grief and bereavement process, communication and required documentation.

Meeting these regulatory requirements takes the form of an annual competency assessment for each volunteer. This entails reviewing a presentation on a particular topic and successfully answering the questions that follow it. Volunteers are required to complete this annual assessment to continue as a Volunteer with Community Hospice & Palliative Care.

This assessment will only be sent to those in need of a renewal for 2024. If you are one of those lucky volunteers you should have received an email with 3 videos, 2 videos with audio and 1 without audio, and 3 separate links to the assessments. We ask that these be completed no later than Monday, September 23. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact our Training Coordinator, Abby Byanski, at AByanski@communityhospice.com or 904.776.6733.

2024 Annual Volunteer Training : Save The Date!

October is our Annual Volunteer Training month. We would love to invite you to save the dates. This year we will have 2 opportunities for you to join us and hear about Veterans at the End of Life; Presented by Kristy Skonieczny and "Four Things that Matter Most" by Jess McCrosky.

Friday, October 25, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Chapman Center in St Augustine

Tuesday, October 29, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Neviaser Education Center in Jacksonville

Be on the lookout for an invitation in the mail!

Patient Thanksgiving Boxes 2024 We need your help

Every Thanksgiving Volunteer Services partner with our Hospice Home Teams to assist our patients and their loved ones with holiday food Boxes. Over the years we have been blessed with support from volunteers at Merrill Lynch and Bank of American making some amazing donations for Thanksgiving. We have found that most if not all the donations are tasty nonperishables that make wonderful Thanksgiving dishes but have found we lost sponsorship for the protein portion of the meal. This year, we are asking for support from our volunteers, staff and community members to help us make up this part of our holiday box. Currently, we need roughly 100, $20 gift cards to Publix, Winn Dixie or Walmart to help us support the protein portion of our Thanksgiving boxes for our patients. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you want more information or are interested in donating a gift card, please contact Lenee Savage at LSavage@communityhsopice.com or 904.407.5903.