April Newsletter 2026 - Hospice of the Valleys

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April 2026

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Happy Administrative Professionals Week Help us Celebrate our Admin Team the Week of April 19-25th

Community Events Menifee Health Fair May 2nd, 2026 10:00 - 1:00 26850 Sun City Blvd. Menifee, CA 92586 State of the City Nonprofit Expo May 28th, 2026 7:00 - 10:00 Pechanga Resort & Casino 45000 Pechanga Parkway CA 92592

NOTES FROM FRIENDS Hospice of the Valleys serves hundreds of patients every year. We honor them by sharing their stories. They remind us every day of the meaning and purpose of our work and that human connection is at the heart of the hospice experience. The following are notes Hospice of the Valleys has received from the families of patients that we have been privileged to provide hospice care. "Your compassion meant so much to my dad. Thank you also for the support you gave our family throughout this journey. We will always be grateful." "Thank you for being my "village" as I prepared to say goodbye to my beloved husband."

Volunteer Spotlight Delores Schultz Celebrating 25th Anniversary! Delores has dedicated herself to Hospice of the Valleys for over 2 1/2 decades. She exemplifies the true spirit of altruism, life of service and compassion. She has provided over 3,500 hours of volunteer service to Hospice of the Valleys.

JR. Advisory Club Our Jr. Advisory Club got together recently to make Easter cards for our patients and their families! We love their dedication to our mission!

Celebrate the Heart of Volunteering Become a Hospice Volunteer Hospice is about family and community... And volunteers bring heart to hospice. Our team always had the need for volunteers in patient support, music, veteran to veteran support, fundraising, administrative support and more. Hold a Hand-Give a Hug-Touch a Heart. Becoming a hospice volunteers is a meaningful and rewarding experience. You can make a difference! *Seeking bi-lingual volunteers for patient support and music* Hospice of the Valleys: Canyon Lake, Fallbrook, Hemet, Homeland, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Murrieta, Nuevo, Perris, Quail Valley, Romoland, San Jacinto, Sun City, Temecula, Wildomar, Winchester Please contact Chrisy Lawless, Volunteer Manager 951-200-7800 or CLawless@hovsc.org for more information. You may also refer to our website page HospiceoftheValleys.org for new training updates.

Seeking Fundraising Volunteers - You can make a difference - Outgoing and Self-Motivated - Detail-Oriented and Good organization skills - Ability to Interact Positively with Guests and a Team. If this sounds like you, we'd love to talk with you about how you can help! Please contact: Chrisy Lawless 951-200-7800 | CLawless@Hovsc.org

JOIN US IN MAKING A DIFFERENCE You can make a big impact with Hospice of the Valleys by supporting our Nurses' Fund - a vital resource dedicated to strengthening the compassionate care our nurses provide every single day. Our nurses are truly the heart of our mission. They bring calm in the hardest moments, comfort at 2:00 AM, and guidance for families facing their most sacred goodbyes. When you support them, you support every patient and family who turns to us in their time of need. Your gift to the Nurses' Fund helps us: - Support and retain exceptional hospice nurses - Provide ongoing training and professional development - Maintain low nurse caseloads that allow for more individualized, specialized care - Expand access to care for patients regardless of ability to pay YOUR MONTHLY GIFT MAKES A DIFFERENCE $10 'We Honor Veterans' Pinning for One Patient $25 Comfort Supplies for Ten Patients $50 Medication Copays for Ten Patients $100 Clinical Staff Transportation to Four Patient Visits DONATE

Citrus and Moss invites you to the 6th annual Give Back Event Thursday 4/30/26 10am-5pm Kick-Off Celebration Friday 5/01/26 10am-5pm Celebration Continues 25% of every purchase benefits HOV! Hospice of the Valleys Citrus and Moss 951-506-1606 28459 Old Town Front St. Temecula Ca. www.citrusandmoss.com

HOV WC 2026

Volunteer Corner Celebrating Hospice Volunteers Hospice of the Valleys Honors its Volunteers during National Volunteer Week April 19-25. "Your Year to Volunteer" is the focus of this year's National Volunteer Week. Highlights that 2026 is a time for everyone to find their purpose and make a difference through volunteering, fostering connection and strengthening communities. Also Highlighting 2026 "America Gives" As part of the US 250th anniversary, the focus is on achieving the largest year of volunteer hours ever recorded. Join us in recognizing and thanking our volunteers for their incredible dedication to Hospice of the Valleys. We could not do our work without all of our amazing volunteers!

Giving is a Great Investment in Your Health Your Health Matters Leslee B. Cochrane, MD Executive Medical Director "A pessimist sees a glass as half empty; an optimist sees it as half full. A giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty." - G. Thomas Gale Your heart is AMAZING! Each day it beats about 100,000 times, pumping roughly 2,000 gallons of blood through nearly 60,000 miles of blood vessels. By age 50, your heart will have beaten more than 1.8 billion times - making you, in a sense, a billionaire! If heartbeats were dollars, you would invest them wisely for the greatest return. Here's a powerful investment tip for 2026: give some of those heartbeats to others. Research continues to confirm what we've long believed giving improves the giver's health. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024 release), about 23% of Americans formally volunteer each year, contributing billions of hours of service. Yet the greatest returns may not be measured in hours, but in health outcomes. More recent longitudinal studies published in the 2010s and 2020s reinforce earlier findings that volunteering is linked to lower mortality, improved mental health, and greater life satisfaction - particularly among adults over 50. A 2020 review in the journal BMC Public Health found that individuals who volunteered at least 100 hours per year experienced a measurable reduction in depression and a significant improvement in overall well-being. Other large cohort studies have shown that consistent volunteers have lower rates of hypertension and a reduced risk of early death compared to non-volunteers, even after adjusting for baseline health and socioeconomic factors. In 2026, as loneliness and social isolation remain major public health concerns especially among older adults volunteering offers protective benefits. The U.S. Surgeon General has highlighted social connection as a key determinant of health, linking strong community engagement to reduced cardiovascular risk and longer life expectancy. The return on your "heartbeat investment" doesn't require a full-time commitment. Just two hours a week - about 100 hours a year - aligns with the threshold many studies associate with meaningful health benefits. Volunteering strengthens social ties, reduces stress, provides purpose, and activates the same reward centers in the brain associated with joy and fulfillment. It is still true that it is more blessed to give than to receive - and now we have decades of data to support it. So invest your AMAZING heartbeats wisely. Find someone who is thirsty - for help, for hope, for connection - and serve. Your community will benefit, and so will your heart.

Riverside County Veterans Business Resources NOW Program provides valuable business resources to our Veteran community. Learn more about procurement opportunities, financing options, hiring and training incentives, and starting or expanding a business at quarterly workshops, and keep up to date on current events and resources. 951-955-8916 bizinfo@rivco.org RIVERSIDE COUNTY VETERANS BUSINESS RESOURCES NOW PROGRAM PROCURE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS FINANCIAL RESOURCES BUSINESS STARTUP & EXPANSION PERMIT ASSISTANCE HIRING & TRAINING VETERANS-FOCUSED WORKSHOPS RIVCOED.ORG/VETERANS

The Sweet Spot Mike Patton Bereavement Counselor/Spiritual Care When I used to play golf, I knew when I found the sweet spot on my irons. It matched the face of the club with the golf ball in a kind of perfect harmony, making the shot feel so good. Admittedly, this was a rare feeling in my game (hence "used to play") but I would like to suggest a "sweet spot" in our care for patients and their families. Ours is a caring work, emphasizing the management of the big three symptoms for our patients: pain, agitation, and shortness of breath. Our doctors and nurses are fantastic at ordering the right meds and suggesting the appropriate routine for managing the symptoms associated with each. From the psychosocial side of the team, we can assist with more of the existential issues of dying and anticipatory grief. Dr. Frank Anderson, a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, spoke to us in our Grief Educators Certificate program on the issue of trauma and grief. He mentioned that when dealing with trauma, there is a sweet spot to be aware of when providing support. They have found that the more we talk about "the trauma" the more we encode the traumatic messages. When supporting our patients and families we have two extremes to avoid in our care. David Kessler has said, "You can't heal what you can't feel" and "our pain needs to be witnessed." So, on the one hand, the emotional pain associated with the dying process needs to be witnessed, and we are often the most likely people to hear these concerns. It is good for us to be present for our patients and families to receive what they are sharing. On the other hand, it can be detrimental to their well-being if we belabor their telling and retelling their stories, especially if there is trauma in their storytelling. I have found the bedside of the deceased, with family present, is one of those profound moments for holding this tension. Often there are strong emotions felt at the time of death. Entering that space with the family is such an honor. I try to remember to be quiet and respectful, as well as humanly present for every family member. I witness the intersection of love and grief in those moments. And as I reflect on the people present in that space, I am grateful for the sweet spot of their deep love intersecting with the pain of loss that death immediately demands. Hospice of the Valleys, in my experience, has a knack for finding the sweet spot in our care every time. We enter into these emotionally rich and sometimes super-charged situations, and because of the character of our team, are able to connect just right... a soft touch that brings comfort and peace... similar to that one time that I hit a golf ball from the fairway onto the green, and it rolled right into the hole!

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