Starting a Church based Nursing Home Ministry
While the major thrust of this manual is to help Christians in a nursing home ministry, this final part enlarges the scope a bit to help churches organize to meet the needs of elderly people both inside and outside of nursing homes.
This part is adapted from “Developing Programs for Senior Citizens—A Handbook for churches,” produced by the Delaware County of (PA) Services for the Aging, and is included here with their permission. We gratefully acknowledge the editors: Judy Oerkvitz, Louis Colbert, Norma Thomas and Verne Dalton.
INTRODUCTION
Churches have historically sought to minister to the special needs of widows, orphans and the aged. Today many churches are reexamining their efforts along these lines in light of the changing cultural and social situation. As concern for the plight of the aged has increased, so too have the resources available to the church. Health systems, social agencies and informational services all stand ready to provide support to churches taking on new projects or otherwise strengthening their ministry with the aging.
The purpose of this section is threefold:
1. To provide general guidelines as to how a church can plan a program to serve and involve the older adult.
2. To offer some suggestions about how to plan, organize and maintain an effective volunteer program.
3. To suggest ideas for the kinds of programs that churches can undertake to help alleviate problems faced by senior citizens.
This section has been designed to provide an overview of the major elements of program development. Detailed instructions have necessarily been omitted due to the fact that program development and implementation will vary according to the particular situation of a given church.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR PROGRAM
Develop a Planning Committee
Organize a committee responsible for looking into program ideas and developing a plan to extend the church's ministry to/with the aging. Ideally, this committee should consist of the pastor, one or more members of the church's governing body and several members of the congregation. It is recommended that older people themselves be recruited for this committee. The responsibility of the committee will be to survey the needs and resources, define the problems, develop plans for problem resolution, work to initiate programs, review t...
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...financial base.
Rotating Fund
It is inevitable, given our busy pace of life, that not all members of a church will be willing or able to volunteer time to extend the church's ministry to the aging. However, there may be some individuals who are willing to contribute funds, others who will work on fund-raising projects. These funds may be used to support programs described above by paying for salaries, rent, equipment or volunteer expenses; or they may be combined to form a Rotating Fund to meet special needs of elderly citizens. Here are some ideas for how the money could be used:
To install a telephone and pay the monthly bills for a senior citizen to allow him or her to participate in the Telephone Reassurance Program.
To extend low-interest loans to older people for home repairs.
To assist older people in paying fuel bills incurred during extremely cold winters.
To assist an older person in paying for dialysis needed on a regular basis.
To build a ramp or install a chair lift for a person who becomes disabled (to allow him or her to continue living at home).
To provide glasses, a hearing aid or dentures for a needy person.
To stock an emergency food closet.
Wilson, Barbara S., Arlene Flancher, and Susan T. Erdey. The Episcopal Handbook. New York, NY: Morehouse Pub., 2008. Print.
The Senior Alliance Initiative is a non-profit organization designed to help improve the quality of life for senior citizens and integrate seniors into the community. The program will originate in Manitoba’s rural communities where there is often a shortage of close resources such as food, toiletries, and health services. As of 2011, 20.3% of Manitobans over the age of 65+ live in rural communities which means approximately one in five senior-aged Manitobans are not able to receive the help they need without aid from family/friends, home care, or a senior care home. (Univeristy of Manitoba, 2016) Often these resources are not available or are unreasonable due to:
Furthermore, the health care facility should implement changes in their care to help reunite senior couples. The policy-makers within the health care facility should be involved to make more facility for senior couples to stay together.
Mrs. Annette Noel is the elder used for this project. She is the mother of a friend who resides in the neighborhood. The client is an 81- years- old who was recently widowed. She has been moved to Florida March 2010, after the earthquake in Haiti. She lives in a one-story home with her daughter of 50, her granddaughter is a physical therapy assistant and her niece is a nursing student at Broward College. The client has as well two sons and their family who live close by her house. The client’ highest level of education is elementary, she can barely read in a French bible and she speaks only Creole. The client was very functioning during her early age in Haiti. She used to travel back in forth from Haiti to Dominican Republic to buy and sell clothing from one country to another. She owned also a retail food store.
Shawchuck, Norman and Roger Heuser. 1996. Managing The Congregation: Building Effective Systems To Serve People. Nashville: Abingdon Press.
Shapira, N. N., Barak, A. A., & Gal, I. I. (2007). Promoting older adults' well-being through
Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier . The Alban Institute, Inc., 1991. Kindle eBook file.
Explain how you utilized the principles of teaching/learning to encourage health promotion and illness prevention with women, infants, children and families including acknowledgement of religious, cultural and spiritual influences on health and health promotion activities of the client.
Life Application Study Bible New International Version. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Pub., 2005. Print
The thesis of the book Deep and Wide by Adam Stanley is simply put as making a church that the unchurched can’t resist to attend. This book may cause controversy in some Christian circles by leaving a traditional church view of the church’s purpose being for the churched, however, in this paradigm shift Stanley presents that the church’s purpose should be to reach the unchurched in order for people to receive the Gospel that would never step foot into a traditional church. Stanley has shown results with this mission and method by North Point Churches growth from its start with him as a church planter and senior pastor. Deep and Wide challenges the pastor to refocus and seriously convict them
Providing companionship is the top priority here 20% of the elderly population here in America suffers from depression. Now add in those who have lost loved ones, or whose relatives live out of state. Those poor souls are the ones stranded in retirement homes with no possible way to leave the building. The best possible way of any of them communicating with anyone outside of the retirement home are caring volunteers. Setting a program where volunteers with kind hearts to provide elderly with companionship will fill these prison like communities with life and returning souls. The v...
“Reaching Out without Dumbing Down” seems to be constructed for the church leader, elder, or pastor who is considering altering their current, historic worship style for a more modern one that may attract greater numbers of unsaved people. She provides excellent standards to help Pastors and Worship Leaders plan, execute, and evaluate worship services. These same standards provide a great opportunity to educate the church family on the reasons behind the use of certain worship elements. Although written for church leadership, the everyday church member would also benefit from understanding the very concepts that Dawn is directing at God-empowered leaders.
Ritchie, M. (1999). Community bible chapel. The story of the church – Part 4, Topic 5. The Protestant
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