Health Matters

We all know that Health Care in North America is the topic of many conversations.  Here in Canada there are cracks appearing in the overburdened system.  I read an article several years ago in a local paper, about the College of Physicians and Surgeons recommending the government to develop a Home-Care strategy for seniors and better health care for young people.  They go on to acknowledge the benefits of people receiving health care in their homes as maintaining health and ‘well-being’.  

I was a Home Care Nurse for 10 years and I understand the health benefits of keeping spouses in their homes together during their later years. In their home environment they continue to be in community with family, faith and friends.  In my experience as a Home Care Nurse and as a Faith Community Nurse, loneliness and loss of hope ranked high on the needs assessment scale.  By allowing people to remain in their home environment we remove further steps to alienation.  

With that said, the fact remains that there aren’t enough nurses and workers to support this system, and not all seniors can stay in their home.  The present structure fails us and that leaves boomer families scrambling to juggle schedules and care giving needs for not only themselves but their parents and their children. Not being able to look after their ailing parents themselves means having to take an insurmountable amount of time weaving through their options. This is mind boggling for most.   

LTC facilities and Assisted living organizations are also experiencing a reawakening in the wake of Covid-19.  How are they able to care for seniors with intentionality and compassion while maintaining high levels of Health Ministry metrics. 

The question rolling around in my mind is:  What is the Faith Community’s Role in all of this?  

Faith Communities are places of like minded people with a common belief system who spend most of life together from birth to death.  How do they respond to the members needs in this overtaxed health care system.  Many churches have developed ‘Care Ministries’ or other intentional ways of caring for their members and I commend them for this and say keep on, keep on!  But is there more that the church can do?  Faith Community Nursing is a very practical and spiritual ministry accessible to Faith communities.  Provided by an actively registered Nurse this ministry allows a professional to equip the volunteers as well as make in home assessments and provide one on one visits to parishioners.  When churches decide to be intentional about caring for their members this ministry fits the bill.  I am not suggesting we set out to replace the Health Care System, but let us walk along side one another in the best possible way.    

Recently I heard of four elderly woman who wanted to stay in their homes but just couldn’t for various reasons.  They decided to live together.  Then, if one of them needed occasional help with something they could help each other.  This is very ingenious!  

I am sure there are many ideas out there if we just contemplate long enough.  Faith communities are extended family and we need to start thinking like family.

What are your thoughts and ideas?  I want to hear them!

The Waiting Room Adventure
I know you have all had the experience of waiting for something!
There is that paradox of anticipation mixed with frustration, hoping it will happen today and knowing it may not happen for a long time. God tells us patience is a virtue and as much as we try and let things play out there are also moments we get fed up or lose hope.
What comes to my mind is the obvious…..
like waiting in the ER department
You come in with the hope of being seen quickly but you never know when your name will be called. So you sit and wait…………………., finally you pull out a magazine, then another one, still waiting………… you start playing a game on your phone or answer your emails.
Finally you hear your name called, you are relieved and excited but then you find out it was just to get your health card number and complaint.
Then its back to your chair for another wait which could last 15mins to 8 hours. You’ve already exhausted the magazine rack and you’re all caught up on your emails and texts, now you start people watching.
Sometimes the room is very empty and that leaves you wondering why you are waiting so long. Other times the room is full to capacity and you try not to stare at the man in the corner who cant sit still and keeps going up to the info counter every 5 mins.
The mom beside you looks exhausted and is trying to entertain her crying, runny nosed, 18 month old and you hope and pray your immune system is up and running. Fully aware that it isn’t or you wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Then the automatic doors open and in come two paramedics with a stretcher holding a white haired frail man with an O2 mask and IV hung high over his head. Your heart goes out to him as your emotions flip flop from one scenario to another.
As you continue to look around there is something else you begin to see.
You notice that People, who look like nurses, or maybe they’re Doctors, or they could be cleaning personnel, whomever they are, they keep going in and out doors looking like they are busy or not. Maybe they are waiting for the next big thing to happen or maybe they are on their break _ you don’t know _ but _ it makes you wonder if you have been forgotten. And why is it that you are waiting so long anyway?
And the excitement doesn’t ever really end because you finally get called to “come on back” and they put you behind a curtain on a bed and someone asks you questions. again – usually the same questions. Then they disappear and your left to listen to the goings on around you.
My daughter in law just spent some time in the ER with my 4yr old grandson and let me tell you, she has a new appreciation for hospital staff. Her comment to me after they arrived back home was one of disbelief and awe for the medical staff.
-They witnessed someone having to be put in a separate room because they were out of control and kept banging on the window of the locked door,
– They had an elderly gentleman next to them who was having bowel issues and the nurses were so good to him but he obviously couldn’t control things.
– They heard someone wretching and someone else screaming and cursing. It was all very educational.
You have all experienced something similar I’m sure.
I have come to realize that waiting is a part of life whether the wait is long or short lived.
As a kid, the time from one Christmas to another was eternity.
We have to wait 9 months for the baby to arrive.
We’ve been waiting for Spring to really arrive.
This kind of waiting is really only temporary and we know with certainty that Christmas will arrive, the baby will come and Spring is around the corner.
But the wait is none the less long.
What about the wait time for things we really don’t know will happen in our life time. Like the unanswered prayers for loved ones, or a wayward child, or the addicted spouse, or relief from pain be it physical or mental or spiritual.
“What are we to do about these wait times?” We do not know they will have an end.
Life goes on even when we are waiting! But what does that life look like?
There have been times when I feel like I have been wasting away my time as I await the next big adventure. Then I slap myself on the side of the head and get focused.
Sometimes I want so much to be out there helping but there are soooo many places I could get involved that I become paralyzed and step back because I don’t’ know which one to choose.
At times I have felt far away from God and unsure of what He is asking me to do. But when I do go to Him in prayer I keep coming away with the same words over and over. Wait for my timing and just rest. Meet each day and do what is in front of you. BE in the PRESENT.
He reminds me of some of the old testament stories and how Abraham and Sarah waited 80 years to have a child!! Oh Lord I hope I don’t have to wait that long!
Or how Joseph, falsely in-prisoned, waits for a freed inmate to fulfill a promise to remember how good Joseph was to him, and bring it to Pharoah’s attention.
I love the story of Joseph because it hits a cord of reality with me. Life is not promised to be an easy road. Joseph new that well. He was sold by his brothers as a slave. I can imagine he felt great pain during that time of rejection and uncertainty – obviously not the life he thought was laid before him as the favored son. But God knew why He was allowing this.
Things then get a little better because he is trusted with Potifar’s business and he is loyal, and integral. Potifar’s wife tries to seduce him and he refuses to succumb to the temptation. That fact is what put him in jail. Misunderstood!!!!! -more hurt and rejection.
Did he lament his situation – we don’t know – we do know he was human. I’m sure he had questions for God. But what did he do with his misfortune. He used the gifts and talents that God gave him – gift of administration and caring – he was good at that and wasn’t afraid to use these gifts wherever he was, – and it didn’t go unnoticed. The guard entrusted Joseph with all the day to day of the prison regime. The day finally came when he was free from prison and he was placed in a very prominent position.
The rest as they say is history. We know how the story ended.
I don’t’ know how my story will play out – neither do you.
I take great encouragement in knowing that Joseph didn’t know how his story would end either.
I believe that we are called to do what is set before us. Some days for me that is babysitting my grandchildren and being the best grandma I can be. Other days it is reading reports and writing minutes or making bank deposits for a committee or board I am serving on.
God places us where we are to bloom and so I try to be the best neighbour I can be.
All the while I feel like I am in the waiting room. Waiting for the next major thing that God has for me to do.. and I know it wont’ be a major event in the world’s eyes but it will be for me.
The bottom line, the thing that I am learning, is that I must be faithful in the everyday for that is the adventure I am on. I must admit, somedays it is not a very exciting adventure, and I know I have to be proactive not just reactive. But I have to learn to listen more to the nudges I get in my mind and spirit and act on them. For the most part that is praying for whoever comes to mind that day, or dropping off baking to a neighbour, or making that phone call.
Not big things in this world’s eyes but big in God’s eyes. And all the while I wait………… Hoping I am faithful to what God is calling me to.
What are you waiting for? What unanswered prayer is ever present in your mind? Give it to God and actively begin your adventure.

Health Matters: Where Church and Life Intersect

Churches are full of life! The life of the pastor, the staff, the volunteer, the family, the children and youth, the young adult and the senior. Where else do you find such diversity of community? After working in the church for over ten years as a Parish Nurse, it was quite obvious to see that the one common denominator that ALL have in common is Health. Good health, poor health, disabled health, mental health. For the majority of us, health plays a major role in forming our outlook on life. If we are healthy – life has no limits, if we are in poor health – limits are an ever present fact of life and another hurtle to jump. At some point we have all experienced poor health and it is that fact that brings common ground into our faith communities.

I would venture to say that communities that are healthy are those where acceptance, validation and true sacrificial caring are practiced. Where all are made to feel heard and loved no matter the status of their health. I have met with many seniors, one on one, to sit and just listen to their heartaches, their story, their concerns. I held their hand as they cried tears of sorrow and loss, I listened as they spoke of not feeling needed anymore, I lifted them in prayer and reiterated their concerns to God with them. Upon leaving, it never failed, I would see a smile radiate their face and a contentment wash over them that indeed they were valued – for I had listened!

Does it not equate then that to be healthy is to be at peace in body, mind and spirit no matter our physical or mental limitations? To help one another achieve this peace is one of the reasons God wants us to be in community.  We need each other!  Let’s find ways to be Healthy!