Caring Hands Volunteer Newsletter Spring 2021

WHAT’S INSIDE

Page 2

Letter from Chris Wilson

Page

Page

3

Getting Back to In-person Caring

6

Children’s Grief Volunteers

VOLUNTEER NEWSLETTER SPRING 2021

Page 8

Vigil Volunteer Training

Letter from Chris Wilson Dear Friends, Can we give a big shout out to science?

We could not have even considered having drive-up events at each of our offices during last year’s Volunteer Appreciation Week. How COVID-19 was spread was still being researched. The idea of a vaccine being available before the end of 2020 was beyond hope.

Flash forward to this year’s Volunteer Appreciation Week. Our vaccinated team wearing some of the 1000s of masks our volunteers created for us was able to see many of our volunteers in person. We joyfully handed mugs and bags of cookies to the many friends who drove up to our Prince George’s, Charles and Anne Arundel counties’ locations without fear of spreading the disease. We laughed and shared without a computer screen.

It was also the first time I met many of our Charles County volunteers in person. I so enjoyed hearing what you do to support patients and families living with serious illness in Charles County. You were so welcoming to everyone on the Volunteer team. We feel a stronger bond with the Charles County community and we hope you feel the same about the growing mission to which our two storied organizations are committed as one.

Thanks to science, and to your patience and perseverance, we will begin to roll out an in-person volunteer plan. There will be strict requirements that must be adhered to and training to ensure these guidelines are understood. For example, all in-person volunteers will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, wear personal protective equipment and remain physically distant for now. Details about this plan can be found in this newsletter.

We are so excited about this giant step to caring for life throughout the journey with illness and loss in the same room. And, as always, we are so grateful and honored for your generosity and compassion.

With gratitude,

Christine Wilson, CFRE Director of Advancement and Volunteer Services

“Start where you are.

Use what you have.

Do what you can.”

— Arthur Ashe

Getting Back to In-person We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. What’s at the end of that tunnel, however, has changed. And though we say, “getting back to in-person care,” we cannot yet go back to the way things were in January 2020. But we can at least get closer than we have been in over a year.

As our care teams, volunteers, patients and families get vaccinated, we have begun to introduce more opportunities for volunteers to serve onsite and in-person. There have already been a small number serving in administrative roles in our offices, all while masked and keeping socially distanced.

We want to thank those of you who completed the survey we emailed this spring, providing valuable information on your thoughts and concerns about returning to in-person volunteer support. With this information, and working with Chief Medical Officer Eric Bush, MD, we have developed plans and guidelines for the safe return of volunteers providing in-person direct patient care.

To best utilize our re-emerging corps of volunteers wishing to return to in-person direct patient care, we are restricting their participation to serve only in Honor Salutes, at our inpatient care centers, in limited Chesapeake Life Center volunteer roles, and as Vigil and Respite Volunteers.

On the next page, you will find the guidelines we are employing to ensure your safety as well as the safety of our patients, families and team members.

Care

Guidelines

To ensure the safety of patients, families, care teams and themselves, in-person volunteers will be offered education and guidance and will be required to abide by strict set of conditions: Vaccine Required – To ensure everyone’s safety we will require volunteers returning to any in-person related duties, including patient care, Chesapeake Life Center support and other administrative support, to have completed their COVID-19 vaccination and to provide documentation of this to the Volunteer team. A growing body of evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and potentially less likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others. However, further investigation is ongoing.

Education – We will hold and require volunteers to attend an educational question and answer session via Zoom to ensure understanding of proper use of PPE along with review of other safety guidelines.

Pre-Screening – On the date of your scheduled visit, prior to arrival, patient care volunteers will be required to call ahead and review screening questions with the patient and family. Our care teams also complete this protocol prior to each visit. Screening results must be documented in progress notes.

Chesapeake Life Center and other administrative volunteers will be required to complete a screening form upon arrival at any of our offices or facilities, including a temperature check.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – KN95 masks and face shields will be provided to each fully vaccinated volunteer who elects to return to in-person patient care or other support activities. Scheduled dates and times for pick-up will be provided soon. PPE must be worn at all times during visitations or support activities. Volunteers must follow CDC recommendations for use of masks. Chesapeake Life Center and other administrative volunteers are required to wear face masks at all times, except when alone in a cubicle making calls or scanning paperwork.

Hand Hygiene – Wash your hands often with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. Use hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol, covering all surfaces of your hands and rubbing them together until they feel dry. Hand hygiene should be performed at a minimum prior to and upon completion of all in-person patient visits.

Physical Distance – Volunteers should maintain a minimum of 3 feet of physical distance from other individuals at all times. Volunteers are NOT to have any physical contact with the patients, family members or staff. No hand holding, handshakes, hugging, etc.

Patient COVID Status – Volunteers will not knowingly be assigned to patients and families with a positive COVID-19 status. Additionally, volunteers utilized in facilities will not be provided the COVID status for other patients and family members.

Changes to this plan may be impacted by positivity rates and hospitalization in our communities for the rest of 2021 and will be determined by the Hospice of the Chesapeake Emergency Taskforce. Updates and notifications will be shared as needed.

We know that this seems to be a lot of information and restrictions, but it is no more than we ask of our clinical professionals. Our clinical leaders, especially Dr. Bush, are eager to bring volunteers back into the “in real life” picture. Our goal is to return volunteers to providing the much-needed compassionate care and support to patients and families in-person whenever possible. But our top priority is continuing to ensure the safety of each of you, our patients, their families, and our care teams.

If you are interested in continuing to pursue returning to in-person volunteer support based on the items outlined above, please email volunteers@hospicechesapeake.org.

s e o G t h g i l t o p S r e e t n u l o V

Social

We have in the past featured some of our many shining examples in our Volunteer Spotlight section of our Caring Hands newsletters. We love sharing their stories as to why they became a hospice volunteer and what they get back from giving so much.

Now that we have even more volunteers serving even more patients and families, we want to share more of these stories all the time. So last month, appropriately timed with Volunteer Appreciation Week, we introduced our Volunteer Spotlight videos featuring volunteers from Prince George’s, Charles and Anne Arundel counties. You can find them on ALL of our social media accounts (visit page 1 to find links for all of the accounts).

Can we ask you to help us thank more volunteers and reach more community members who might want to become a volunteer: Can you like, share, retweet and follow these videos?

Click on the pictures to see each video from last month.

Grief Support CORNER

Children have experienced great losses since the beginning of the pandemic: socialization in the classroom, playing freely with as many friends as they like, spending time with extended family. Those who have also experienced the loss of a loved one are especially fragile.

Chesapeake Life Center sees the need and strives to answer that need for children who are grieving in a variety of ways.

Our services to children and families have continued throughout the pandemic, including monthly in-person children’s support groups, special programs and individual and family counseling.

Bereavement Services Manager Amy Stapleton, left, and Children’s Program Volunteer Jay Beeler participate with last year’s Phoenix Rising summer program that was held at Terrapin Adventures. This program will be repeated.

This summer, Chesapeake Life Center will offer several inperson opportunities for our community’s grieving children and teens. Because children feel and express their grief in a variety of ways, three distinct workshops for children ages 6 to 11 are scheduled, each with its own theme. May’s program is built around the understanding of grief as an adventure and will take place at Terrapin Adventures in Savage. In June, children can use art to help express grief at Artsy Partsy in Pasadena and in July, it will be “grief out loud” with music filling the air of Watkins Park in Upper Marlboro. Middle- and high-school children will have an extended one-day outdoor adventure offering in August at Terrapin Adventures. All programs will take place with limited participation (and masks) to allow for appropriate distancing.

Chesapeake Life Center Program Coordinator Jen Caughron said volunteers are an integral part of the children’s programs.

“They bring years of experience and a level of compassion needed to help guide these children through their grief. I like to say that it takes a village, and what a talented village we have.”

Caughron said.

Children’s Program Volunteers are trained on grief as it is experienced and expressed by children at various ages, and the importance of maintaining appropriate boundaries with our young clients. Counselors are supported in our group offerings and in summer children’s programs by these specially trained volunteers.

Susan Coale, Director of Chesapeake Life Center, said every member of the bereavement team is grateful for these volunteers who generously give of their time and talents to support children who have experienced loss. “The volunteers add a depth and warmth to our program that is unequaled anywhere else,” Coale said. “We are hopeful that this summer we will be able to have more volunteer participation again.”.

Caughron said, “We could not do all that we do if we did not have the talent and support of our volunteers. We miss their presence greatly right now. We feel the void in our programs and very much look forward to the day they can all safely return.”

Veterans

CORNER How we reach more Veterans, even during a pandemic

By Bob Moseley, Volunteer Services Manager

We continue to be amazed at some of the surprise silver linings that have come from being forced to find innovative ways to provide our services during the limitations of the pandemic. One of those has been that we performed 300 Honor Salutes virtually and socially distant for our veteran patients in 2020, which is more than in any other year since we first started facilitating them in 2010. And with 115 completed already through April, we are on track to break even that record.

We also continue to grow our We Honor Veterans program at Hospice of Charles County under the leadership of Heather Grierson, our senior volunteer services coordinator.

Heather has been working to significantly enhance the program and is recruiting a cadre of dedicated volunteers in Charles County to help ensure that our veteran populace in that area is well served.

A few have been able to be performed in-person outdoors, with participants socially distanced and wearing masks. But most were performed virtually. And though for most people the intimacy of an in-person salute is ideal, there are a good number of patients and families who have said they prefer the virtual salute, done privately and on their own time using the kit that is delivered by a volunteer and the video links to the military salute on their smart device or laptops.

As we prepare for the return of volunteers to in-person service, we expect that there will be an increased opportunity to assist with our Honor Salute program. We are always looking for civilian volunteers to be our point of contact when coordinating with families and active military volunteers to perform the salute.

Volunteers who are veterans can fill both roles simultaneously if they are still able to squeeze into their old uniforms!

Chesapeake Life Center bereavement counselor and social worker Hayley Bacon gave a virtual presentation on how loss uniquely affects veterans to the Annapolis Vet Center. You can see and share her presentation, “Grief and Veterans,” by clicking HERE.

As part of our continuing commitment to the program and educational opportunities for Veterans, bereavement counselor and social worker Hayley Bacon gave a virtual presentation on how loss uniquely affects veterans to the Annapolis Vet Center. You can see and share her presentation, “Grief and Veterans,” by clicking HERE. If you are interested in learning more about the We Honor Veterans program, please contact: Renate Little at rlittle@hospicechesapeake.org, Heather Grierson at hgrierson@hospicechesapeake.org or me at rmoseley@hospicechesapeake.org.

Education CORNER

Online Training, Vigil Volunteers and Hospice Ambassadors

By Bob Moseley, Volunteer Services Manager Your commitment to our shared mission of caring for patients and families during illness, end of life and in grief is evident when you sacrifice a large chunk of your valuable time to complete the required training. It is always so humbling to see your hard work and then to witness it at work while you take on the various roles of our volunteers. That is why we so appreciate your patience as we successfully transitioned our online training from the Teaching Transitions platform to the Relias system.

Relias provides both entry-level training for new volunteers and annual training for all volunteers. It also offers several electives that volunteers are free to take, which will help build upon your knowledge and understanding of hospice and related subjects.

This makes your training experience more efficient, and the interface is far more user friendly. We hope you have appreciated the change and see it as a great improvement.

Volunteers who completed training in the former Teaching Transitions platform will have those course completions grandfathered over to Relias and will not be required to re-do training that has been previously completed. Exceptions to that rule are annual trainings such as HIPAA and Patient Rights.

As we return to in-person volunteering as previously reviewed in this newsletter, we are excited to offer Vigil Volunteer training once again. Led by death doulas and integrative arts volunteers Teri Jacobson and Jill Madey, the first session will be held via Zoom from 10 a.m. to noon May 18. This training will help interested volunteers learn more about the role of a Vigil Volunteer, including identifying their responsibilities, applying mindful care and support, and evaluating how you feel called to serve.

The second part, planned for a date in July yet to be determined, will be a 4-hour in-person “deep dive” session. This will be very experiential in nature and go into the vigil process in greater detail. To maximize the learning experience, there will be some pre-training learning assignments prior to the second session. While the focus of this training is on vigil, the subject matter is applicable to the widest spectrum of volunteer roles and we encourage volunteers of all types to consider taking this most valuable and impactful training.

You can find out more about Teri and Jill in their Volunteer Spotlight article HERE.

SPOTLIGHT ON

Education

We encourage all volunteers to become knowledgeable hospice ambassadors, sharing its benefits and debunking myths. To be the best ambassador, please be sure to visit our education library of videos, podcasts and blog articles which is updated monthly.

Below are a few highlights of what is currently available and highly recommended:

Click on each title to learn more: “Grief from the Other Side” Podcast Series – featuring stories from grief support clients and others who have experienced loss “Things to Consider When Diagnosed with a Serious or Life-Limiting Illness” by Chief Medical Officer Eric Bush, MD “I’m so tired! Coping with pandemic fatigue” by Chesapeake Life Center Director Susan Coale “Why your cancer care team should include supportive care” by Chief Medical Officer Eric Bush, MD “Five things you should know about supportive care” by Chief Medical Officer Eric Bush, MD To access additional content, please click HERE or read our blog HERE.

T hankful in Largo!

Volunteer Appreciation Week Volunteer Appreciation Week is supposed to be all about you, but our team has a joyfully selfish confession: It was so wonderful for all of us — Chris Wilson, Bob Moseley, Heather Grierson, Chery Michi, Renate Little and Lydia Vincek – to get a chance to see dozens of you in person!

The weather even played a perfect role as 50 of you rolled by to pick up your mugs and cookies. For those of you who were unable to pick up your mug reach out to us at volunteers@hospicechesapeake.org and we will arrange for you to pick it up.

As for the leftover cookies from Main & Market – they were delicious (wink).

A reciative in Wald f!

Grateful in P

asadena!

Healing Arts CORNER

The Healing Power of Pets We continue to create soothing videos for volunteers to share with patients and families – as well as to enjoy themselves.

The most recent video was created with the help of our Pet Therapy volunteers. Visit our Integrative Arts playlist on YouTube HERE to see “Therapy Dogs of Hospice of the Chesapeake” and try not to smile. You will also be able to watch and share 12 different videos that guide people with mindfulness techniques, yoga, therapeutic music and other imagery, including our Maryland Therapeutic Riding horse video.

Inpatient Care Center Update 2021 As we reflect on the last year and the impact of COVID-19, it has become ever more apparent that many of our underserved communities, who were disproportionately impacted by the virus, continue to be hesitant to utilize services for advanced illness and end of life. We annually review the care we provide and our role in the community to determine the best strategic direction for the future of our organization. We feel compelled to ensure we are providing the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

After careful review, it is clear we are appropriately fulfilling the need for general inpatient care in Anne Arundel County with utilization of the Rebecca Fortney Inpatient Care Center. After opening Fortney, we had hoped that the general inpatient care needs of Prince George’s County patients would be fulfilled by the Mandrin Inpatient Care Center. Unfortunately, we continue to experience less than ideal utilization. In response, we are actively developing general inpatient care contracts with partners in Prince George’s County to ensure we are “meeting families where they are.” This is also in keeping with the new partnership we created with University of Maryland Charles Regional last fall for general inpatient level of care onsite at the hospital for patients and families in Charles County. With these factors that in mind, as of May 15, 2021, we will focus all resources on the Rebecca Fortney and Charles County inpatient care centers and will no longer accept patients at the Mandrin center. Shortly following, the Harwood property will be made available for sale.

We have been and will continue to work directly with our clinical teams to determine the best redeployment options for the Mandrin team. We do recognize the historical value of the Mandrin center and understand that for many this location represents family legacies and investments. We will do our best to maintain and respect those while redeploying these resources to create the programs and services clearly needed by our larger community.

Please know this decision was thoughtful and made with the utmost respect for those who made the Mandrin Inpatient Care Center, originally the Mandrin House, a reality for our community. As is required by our commitment to our mission, we will continue to be leaders in caring for life throughout the journey with illness and loss.