DUKE HOSPICE VOLUNTEERS
CARING FOR OUR PATIENTS, THEIR LOVED ONES, AND EACH OTHER
Duke Hospice Volunteer Newsletter
June 2012
2012 Volunteer Satisfaction Survey—It’s that time of year again when we ask for your
opinions, feelings, advice about the Duke Hospice Volunteer Program. This year’s version of the
survey is short and to the point and can be accessed at 2012 Duke HomeCare & Hospice
Volunteer Satisfaction Survey We would like to have all responses back in by June 15th. If you
would like help with the survey, please call Gricelle Font at 919-479-0499. Gricelle can guide
you through or record your answers by phone, whatever is more convenient. Paper copies of
the survey are available at both IPUs if you want to complete the survey there and leave it in the
envelope in the volunteer desk. This is also a good time to consider if you’d like to make a
change in your assignments—different tasks, more time or less, different locations, etc.
Duke Hospice will host the First-Ever National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
(NHPCO) Virtual Conference for Volunteers and Volunteer Managers: Ignite the Future.
Volunteer Day will be Thursday, August 2, from 10:30 to 6:30 at our Durham office. This is a
wonderful opportunity to learn and network. The schedule includes “Volunteers—The Heart of
Hospice” and “Volunteers: Exceptionalism in Care and Practice” (10:30-noon), “Spirituality at the
End of Life” (12:30-1:30), “Surviving Ourselves—Change, Loss and Self-Compassion” (2:003:00), “So, What Am I Supposed to Do? Working with Non-Communicative Patients / Families”
(3:30-4:30), and “Raising Your Ethical Antennae” (5:30-6:30). You can attend one session or the
entire day. Please call Carolyn if you would like more information or to RSVP. We will provide
snacks and lunch for those volunteers who spend the day at our virtual conference.
Perspectives on Grief” Friday, June 22, 8:30-10:00 a.m. at the Durham office. Kristen
Register Lakis, M.Div. (Duke), M.S.W. (UNC-CH), will introduce participants to perspectives
on grief from the field of social work and the Christian tradition. This program is intended to
increase your knowledge of clinical grief theory and faith-based perspectives on grief, to
increase your awareness and knowledge of disenfranchised grief, and to increase your
awareness of faith-based bereavement care. If you think this would be helpful to your work
with your patients, please let Carolyn know you’ll be coming.
If you love to read and to discuss smart books with smart people, please join the
Duke Hospice book club. Under Rana Davis’s guiding hand, the group will be
reading and discussing Losing My Mind: An Intimate Look at Life with Alzheimers
by Thomas DeBaggio, Thursday, June 28 at 6 p.m. at our Durham office. If you
would like to participate or want more information, contact Rana at
rcmccutchen@earthlink.net or call Carolyn for Rana’s phone number. For more
information on this gripping book written by one of the most verbal and piercing
minds, see the Continuing Education BookNotes article of August 2010.
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Duke Home Care & Hospice Volunteer Opportunities:
New craft opportunity: Crocheting Hearts of Hospice heart-shaped bookmarks as mementos
for families / caregivers to be used by in-patient unit staff
in time-of-death rituals. Sue Blancato has identified this
new opportunity and is interested in gathering likeminded volunteers to crochet these beautiful teal and
purple (hospice colors) hearts. An experienced crocheter
can make one in 15-30 minutes. For the novice, we have
crocheting instructions. For everyone, we have the
bookmark pattern as well as materials to get you started.
Give it a try. The families love them. We are also looking
for someone to design a simple card to be given to families/loved ones to explain the bookmark.
Sue would love to get a group together to make a bunch of bookmarks. If you are interested in
participating in a new group contact Sue at sueblancato@ymail.com.
Patient / Family support volunteer training: Our next training class is scheduled for the
weekend of June 8-10 at our Durham office. If you would like to work one-on-one with hospice
patients and families or know someone in the community who would, please give Carolyn a call.
If you would like to refresh your own training, contact Carolyn for a copy of the training agenda.
Experienced volunteers are needed for our volunteer panel Sunday afternoon, June 10.
Hock Family Pavilion Volunteer receptionist / ambassadors training is scheduled for
Saturday, June 16, 1-5 p.m. at our Durham office. Because the ambassadors
staff the front desk at the HFP for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of
the year, we have a continuing need for caring and compassionate people who
will be the face of Duke Hospice to every new visitor to the in-patient unit. If you
or anyone you know would like to volunteer to answer phones, greet visitors, and
provide general support at HFP, contact Carolyn for more information.
Recognizing our veterans at the end of life: Our volunteer veteran’s recognition program is
off to a great start! A very moving ceremony conducted recently by one of our
non-vet volunteers included 12 of the patient’s family members and prompted
wonderful conversations and expressions of gratitude. Coincidentally, the
patient died 4 days later—on Memorial Day. We are looking for additional
volunteers who are veterans to help us present pins and certificates to veteran
patients to let them know we value their service to our country. If you are a
veteran and are interested, please contact Carolyn. If you know vets who
would be interested in this program, please pass Carolyn’s contact information along.
Nonveteran volunteers who would like to help with this program are certainly welcome.
Additional complementary therapy volunteers are needed for our IPUs. Jean Bollinger and
Darlene Rutledge are excited about the work that has been done in the past
year by our touch therapy (certified Healing Touch, REIKI and Massage),
PETs at Duke, music at the bedside, and HFP pianist volunteers. They
want to continue to grow and expand the program to Hospice at the
Meadowlands so are seeking additional certified touch therapy volunteers,
volunteers to offer music at the bedside and explore art therapy. If you or
someone you know has these kinds of talents to share, please contact Carolyn to discuss our
upcoming training opportunities.
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The June Admission Packet Assembly (aka PAPER SLAM!) workday will be Saturday, June
16 from 9 a.m.-noon at the Durham office. Call Carolyn if you would like to participate. This is a
low investment / high impact project we undertake almost every month to keep the paperflow in
the agency running smoothly. Please grab a friend or two and come along. Snacks are on us!
A patio in our Hospice at the Meadowlands Adopt-a-Patio Volunteer Program
still needs to be adopted. The Meadowlands gardens are a source of beauty and
delight to our patients and their families during their time at the Meadowlands. If
you can imagine a small oasis of color, texture, and fragrance to delight the
senses and can bring that image to life, give Carolyn a call. If you are a designer
but not a planter (or vice versa), see if Carolyn can match you up with a partner to
share the work. You and our patients will be glad you did.
Our next Care Shawl meeting will be on Thursday, July 19, 7 to 9 p.m. at
Chapel Hill Bible Church. If you are interested in participating in a weekday
group at the Durham office, please let Carolyn know. As you may know, this
is one of our most popular volunteer activities. Some patient is waiting for your
gift of love.
All our programs value the volunteer support they receive and we have many requests for
additional weekday clerical support at the Durham office as well as the Bereavement Center. If
you have time to make a regular commitment, please consider these projects:
 Additional volunteers are needed to help with the monthly bereavement mailing on
the 3rd Thursday morning of each month at Unicorn Bereavement Center in
Hillsborough.
 Volunteers to make customer service phone calls weekday afternoons are needed at
the Durham office. If you or someone you know might be interested in helping, give
Carolyn a call.
Triangle Caregivers Conference Tuesday, June 19 in Raleigh or Tuesday, June 26 in
Durham. “Respite, resolution and resources” for those caring for patients / loved ones with
dementia. Topics include dementia, caring for the caregiver, and the “business” of being a
caregiver. Free luncheon for the participants and free offsite professional caregiving for the
patient during the conference is available. Visit www.trianglecaregiversconference.com for fees
and more information.
Did you know? Older Americans who volunteer frequently live longer and report less
disability. Volunteers not only help their community but also experience better health in their
later years, enjoying greater levels of well-being, lower rates of depression and increased
strength and energy. This news comes to you from www.national service.gov.
Did you know? Hospice programs with higher use of volunteers per patient day were
associated with bereaved family member reports that the hospice program quality of care
was excellent. This news comes to you from
http://www.nhpco.org/files/public/JPSM/JPSM_Volunteers.pdf.
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Many, many thanks to all the wonderful volunteers and donors who helped
make Camp ReLEAF 2012 such a success! With visits from gentle pet
therapy animals and a real unicorn, the crafts, new activities like ZUMBA
and beloved activities like Sock Puppets, a bonfire and movies, the young
people were surrounded with caring staff and other kids who shared and
understood their experiences of loss and grief. If you would like to be part of
this important and satisfying work next year, keep an eye open for the call
for volunteers next winter / spring.
A RESOURCE FOR YOU Continuing Education for June: CultureVision: a new resource
for understanding diversity Duke University Health System has recently subscribed to a
comprehensive database that supports culturally competent patient care to
more than 50 ethnic, cultural, religious, and ability groups. Is your patient a
Wiccan or Burmese or Roma/Gypsy? There is information on all of these
groups and more.
This month Gricelle Font has compiled information on
“Hispanics: Family Structure and Relationships from CultureVision. If you
have questions about other ethnic or cultural practices around death and dying
of a specific patient or caregiver, give Gricelle a call so she can find you
information that might help you better support your patient and family.
Dialing Reminder: All calls with a 919 area code must now be dialed using the ten-digit number.
Carolyn will be on vacation June 21-25 to attend her son’s wedding in New
York City. Please contact Gricelle for any volunteer needs during this time.
Gricelle will be on vacation June 28-July 1.
For more information contact:
Carolyn Colsher, DHCH Volunteer Services Supervisor
(919) 479-0385 (phone) (919) 970-0227 (pager) carolyn.colsher@duke.edu
Gricelle Font, DHCH Volunteer Program Coordinator
(919) 479-0499 gricelle.font@duke.edu
Website: dhch.duhs.duke.edu
I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my
life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No"
for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
― Steve Jobs
And thank you, as always, for everything you do for our patients and families.
Carolyn and Gricelle
Mission Statement: Duke HomeCare & Hospice will provide innovative, thoughtful care, using an interdisciplinary team approach,
to achieve the best possible outcomes for the patients, families and communities we serve.
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