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Refer to NACC website New things are being posted daily, with many new resources that can be used in your changing ministry.Refer to the CHA website for resources. New things are being posted daily.CHA website. – front page is a link to Corona Virus resources and Spiritual Care resources and a series of short podcasts.Chaplaincy Innovative lab Chaplaincy Innovation Lab eBook on Grief - Prayers from USCCB: ; Review your diocesan websites for local resources and support including on-line Masses, rosaries, and prayers. Listening Hearts are available: _______________________________________5/26/20 Noon CT General This call is a refreshing time to pause and to take time to listen. We still have more cases in 3 centers, and one center is on lockdown. Only intake for new residents. We’re a PACE program 900 participants in 3 centers and 2 Alzheimer units (72 in each wing). We visit there, the rest are contacted by phone. The COVID numbers are going up. We have at least 10 in isolation. We are sad. Family cannot be with their loved ones; this is so painful. We support them by phone. I sing and tell jokes. It lifts spirits. We pray together.We do more is engaging with families by phone call. Participant engagement was our heart. But now we support family. They can emotionally and spiritually unload. They were unaware of our chaplain services. We get more work to meet the need of family as well as participants.I work with patients and families who are close to death or have recently died. I’m joining this call for support. I’m new to this. I enjoy hearing everyone’s experience.We’ve settled into a routine. The hospital handles COVID patients 15-30 patients, average 20 a day. We maintain contact by phone, assisting with death, helping families through that. We don’t go into the rooms, but in ICU we can see them face to face. For COVID rooms, we are using video connection with hospital iPads.Nurses take iPads into the room to set up for the patient. We’ve helped facilitate family visits. Our Palliative team sets up most of them. We do Medical Power of Attorney with patients; we sign on behalf with patient’s authorization.Patients have dementia, families have painful realization around death, sometimes chaplain can see them and relay the visual contact with family. It’s a lot of what we do.So many things have changed in the settings, people struggle to adjust. We speak of the pain of not being able to see each other and spreading ourselves across many patients. There is a lot of pain for the caregivers as well as the patients and their families.Our staff has been supportive, nurses are willing to go in with the iPads, hold their hands when they are dying. It helps to see staff coming together.There is a challenge is not knowing what is happening in the silence when on phone.I feel know what their expressions would be because I know themBeing new, I haven’t met the participants, so I needed to learn to be a straight shooter: asking what are you thinking, tell me what’s in your heart. I can’t always wait for them to open up, I need to ask the questions to set the pace, asking for what they want.I ask the floor manager for birthdays, so I can call themIn clinical settings, in ICU there is frustration on part of the staff, how can we be more supportive?We have someone in chapel at a set time to allow staff to come and share. This could be through text/email. There are other ways to reach out as well.I always stop into the nurse’s station, I ask about family, share treats, offer prayer, offer poems to post. We work on caring, camaraderie, and blessings. There are ways to build staff. It seems to help. If someone is down, I follow-up, take an interest in them personally.It’s impossible to overestimate what these connections can do.It’s hard, but my training as a priest makes it easier when visiting sick people. I need to process my faith, to see death, it helped when I focus my prayer, to take care of myself. I have been able to do Last Rites with full PPE. Families are grateful for this.My experience in a memory unit. Someone got a FaceTime call. The staff member brought the iPad. There was a whole joy with the group when someone was connected with their family. It was memorable to experience.In this time of so many unknowns we do have a known God. Its good when people can meet God through the rituals._______________________________________5/27/20 2pm CT General Working FT from home, I call patients, they are grateful for the support. Waiting to return, I miss my ministry, the people, and my colleagues. Mercy will be transitioning to a new structure; we cannot continue as an acute care center. We don’t know what this will look like. I am not ready to retire. I trust God will lead and provide.Every MWF, we join together in prayer. Different colleagues post a prayer. We are implementing a plan by putting colleagues in groups to support those who are stressed as the hospital is reopening to other procedures. They are brainstorming how to form these groups. I think there is a lot of grieving, looking to have a celebration of their lives. Chaplains and others are supporting each other. We hope to reopen the hospital to services like communion for our patients.I’m beginning to see PTSD in the front lines who are only at 2 weeks. Administration needs to be aware of that. One chaplain talked about the additional tasks being put on her. There is a need to take space to know how to recognize trauma and stress and how to minister to that. That is our calling now to our communities. It’s a huge thing. I’m seeing the escalating tension. Where is the reflection that I have a choice? I remember hearing a Veteran saying that he had to choose courage. I didn’t stop to think that courage is a choice. Take a pause, remember our visceral response. I can choose to connect, to respond with the whole person rather than reacting. We chaplains can begin to recognize what we are seeing and ask questions to help others to connect. We have a lot of COVID cases and deaths. We get calls from staff, and from families. We had to follow new protocols, we cannot go to bedside, especially COVID. The challenge was in anointing. We could not go or offer communion. Patients would plead to have me come closer, I could not. All we could do is phone or FaceTime, with patient or family. Pray and empathize with them. We also used Plenary indulgence and absolution. We also needed to pray for the department, they were overwhelmed. We need to provide a prayer for spiritual support in our diverse hospital. These prayers were televised. Every faith group was represented. Staff could listen and get strength.For sustenance and strength, I try to relax and sleep. I created a place for a private mass, to reflect what is going on in the world. I listen to Christian songs for self-care, try to de-stress one day at a time. I call people I know to share our experiences. I want is to be useful and having a hard time to find. I spoke with a chaplain who lost half the people in her nursing home She was trying to have a memorial service. We talk that through. We found that it was to let residents talk about how they feel rather than have administration/staff talk. The residents are powerless in a chaotic setting. I’m looking at ways of connecting my active retirement community, even in a limited way, offering a listening ear and support. I’ve been feeling the fear. I’ve been praying a lot about how to live in hope.I’ve been looking at the cure being worse than the disease. It calls us to serious reflection on fear and courage. What am I most afraid of? Where do I have choices and how can I act?_______________________________________5/28/20 1pm CT LTC Blessings in the Chaos by Jan Richardson It is hard for us, our community. We have a funeral today for 2 of our sisters who died. All the COVID + were moved to a nursing home, they needed to call in the National Guard to help. Other burials will be June 2nd. It’s a very difficult time now, we scattered between 2 hospitals right now. The hard part for me is not being able to support my community, so they are not alone. I want to be there, they want me there, but it cannot happen.Who ever thought we would be going through this? It’s a nightmare. I’m working from home, I’m 83 and vulnerable. I make calls to residents in their rooms. They appreciate the calls; it makes me feel good. What is really on my heart is what our nursing home is going through. Because of the NY Governors order to move COVID to nursing homes, we have protests of those who are hurting over the death of their relatives. There are more protesters, some are families that were not here during their loved one’s illness and death. We are being portrayed as monsters. I’m very sad about all this.It’s not enough to be away for your patients but to have families and media against you.I provide support to staff who became sick and who brought it home to their families. They are putting their lives on the line. One aide buried got sick, had an accident, she was hospitalized and was diagnosed COVID+, her son was also sick and recovered, her husband got sick and died. Image the pain and the grief for her.We are allowed to be with our residents at the end of life, but I appreciate the sense of distance from the residents. I am glad to hear that others are sad too. I am not really glad, so to speak. Just glad to have company. I minister in D.C. Our situation is dire here too.We have 19 bed memory unit, all positive, 3 passed from Covid, 3 from other, 5 employees tested positive. We are hoping that future results will be negative. We were not abused by the press, just mapped as having positive cases. I’m sad because I had to watch people die alone. I work remotely from my office in the chapel. The phone seems so impersonal. But if it’s all you can do; it is what you do. I did walk with spouses (who were in independent living with social distancing) I never thought I’d have my heart broken like this. It wasn’t what I imagined in chaplaincy.Archdiocese in Cincinnati is putting out guidelines, some are limiting access to church services by invitation, social distancing, communion in the hand. I have a feeling we won’t have communal anything for a while. Public Health will not allow it until there is a safe vaccine.I remember the conversation about the isolation and its negative impact, loss of will. This is sad.We have to reach out to our staff; they are sad too. requested to return to hospital rooms, we’ll see what kind of response we get. Admins says he wants all COVID out of the building before they reopen.How do we minister to our staff who are sad too? We have to reach out to them. What is everyone doing? We keep talking about being safe away from work. We know our cases came in through an asymptomatic employee. Testing is important.Some states are mandating testing for nursing homes and staffFamily members are calling to see loved ones. They are told no. We are looking at setting up a visitor’s tent. We are experimenting with window visits 1 on 1. Also ZOOM and FaceTime. We have an open room on the first floor that could be used for window visits for those who are upstairs.Maybe this is something we can advocate, that social isolation is bad. We can’t let this go. Can we help accommodate and advocate for social interaction?We help staff by inviting staff to the chapel at a social distance. We did this for a blessing of hands. Chaplaincy Innovation Lab has a book for Caregivers. We’ve been feeding staff with free lunch, hiring restaurants to bring in special lunches.We have been using the chapel for staff use, we provide a space for them. I like the idea of coming to the chapel for a blessing. I think it would be well received.When will nursing homes open to visitors? The governor doesn’t see this until the end of regulations. It will be awhile. We as caregivers are used to hold sad for others. In this time it seeps into us.With Pentecost, we know how to hold the sadness until it is transformed in us individually and collectively.Mary and the apostles didn’t know the spirit was coming. The wind came and filled the room, we wait for the spirit to fill the vacuum. Look to the left and the right and know the Lord is with me and to continue to talk to him about how I feel. ................
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