Parish Nursing Update Autumn 2022

Dear all,

That’s another three months flown by. I’ve just submitted our second quarter data and completed our annual review of the service with Parish Nursing Ministries UK.

This seems a good opportunity to update and thank you for your ongoing support. Our vision and mission seem more appropriate than ever before. Many are facing a bleak winter with significant challenges. With your ongoing support we are able to support some of the most vulnerable in our city.

Motivation, vision and Mission.

Motivated by our belief that Jesus lived amongst the poor and marginalised first, we seek to serve, love and minister to those in need. The vision for our parish nursing project is to reach out to promote the health of body, mind and spirit of those within our diverse community.

Our mission is to offer a listening service with crisis support and to create sanctuary space and time for people; to provide information and health education, to signpost to appropriate services and to offer spiritual care to those of any or no faith.

The stall within the moor market

Over the last three months we have seen 354 clients on the stall. As previously, the majority do not attend church and there continues to be an equal split between males and females.

Three particular events stand out for engagement.

Firstly, our summer holiday activity for children. We met 68 families and were able to share 115 healthy fruit and veg pots with them and gave them colouring in and activity sheets to take home to encourage continued healthy eating. We drew a crowd with a successful marketing campaign on Tik-Tok video.

We then linked in with the Know Your Numbers campaign. This was an opportunity to promote our blood pressure checking service. We were able to talk through what blood pressure is and why it’s so important to know your numbers. We have some fantastic British Heart Foundation booklets that we share to reinforce the information that we share. A couple of the clients we met had raised blood pressure and were signposted to their GPs for review. 

And finally, on the death of her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we opened a Book of Condolences. This led to 232 interventions relating to bereavement. Some just came to write in the book, others came to talk of their own sense of loss and some came to talk about their personal loss of a loved one. This was such a humbling and touching experience, such an absolute privilege. Our work in this area was helped by the Guild of All Souls who provide excellent materials such as prayer cards and leaflet to help families and friends with planning a funeral and managing affairs after a death. Do take a look at their website.

Outreach Service

We have seen 59 on outreach in the last three months, there has been a notable increase in new clients. The majority continue to be white males. Our professional liaison interventions have increased significantly as we refer these clients into other services and feedback re progress and ongoing need.

We’ve provided 10 phones and 5 sleeping bags. We’ve restocked with another 10 phones and five more sleeping bags, ready for the colder months. We also provide for more individual needs such as honey and chamomile tea for a client with a sore throat and cans of dog food for a gorgeous little terrier, her favourite flavour is tripe! Hot drinks continue and we’ll now add soup to the menu as the temperature drops.

Barry continues with his well loved cheese and pickle and ham and pickle sandwiches.

Sanctuary space within the church

Our teapot continues to be in good use after mass each of our working days. This is a great way to meet new comers and to give regulars time to connect and build a sense of belonging. These times lead to interesting conversations and this has become a safe space for people to share their thoughts and feelings.

Training and supervision

We continue with regular clinical supervision with Dawn from PNMUK and Kath, a qualified clinical supervisor who runs her own charity. Spiritual direction is now in place for all volunteers and quiet days are offered regularly.

All are up to date with safeguarding training and in the coming months we’ll be linking in with the Sheffield Outreach Forum to have some input into the design of a training programme for all outreach services within the city. This was an issue which was highlighted by our volunteers at the annual review.

Interventions

We have two new volunteers

Scott has joined the team and will be focussing on supporting the outreach clients.

Scott has lived experience and is a real asset to the team. We’re so proud of how far

he’s come and are thrilled to have him on board. Judith has 24 years’ experience as a hospital chaplain and brings such a wealth of knowledge and experience. I know you will make them both feel very welcome.

We continue to submit funding applications to cover the next three years and in particular to recruit another parish nurse, watch this space. We are excited about the future.

I’ll close with some feedback from Dawn, our regional coordinator who recently completed our annual review.

“It is always a pleasure hearing from this team about what they have achieved and the plans they have in the future. Best practice is always evidenced, and tangible outcomes seen both in the community and on social media.”

We couldn’t do any of this without your prayer and financial support.

With my prayers and very best wishes,

Michaela