Together we care; families and staff can work together to meet the spiritual needs of residents.

Long-term care factities all have a mission. It does not matter who actually owns that health care facility. Its program is there to care for people. Within church-related facilities, we speak of our health care services as a ministry to people. These facilities provided by the church are intended to carry on a ministry that is special in nature. That special long-term care is directed primarily at our aging population: those who are unable to remain independent in the community and are cared for by family and or tends.

Church-related long-term care facilities, otherwise known as nursing homes or convalescent facilities, may be more specifically designed or oriented towards the concept of ministry, but aU such facilities, church-related or proprietary, have a mission, written or unwritten, to "Care for people with short or long-term care needs."

As administrators, managers and staff, of health care facilities, we dare never lose sight of our primary purpose. We exist for the purpose of providing services to people who can no longer care for themselves or are being cared for by other family members or friends on a long-term basis. Though there may be philosophical differences among church-related facilities, and different financial policies between the not-forprofit and proprietary facilities, there dare not be a difference in the the mission of these facilities. This mission must be the ministry of caring.

Nursing facilities play a very important role in the health care field in our society, but they have a bad image in our society. This bad image is created by a few facilities scattered throughout our society that fail to be "caregivers" be cause of a different mission. That is why it is so important that we, as administrators, managers, and staff, are committed to this mission of caring. We must constantly work to create and maintain a positive image of care facilities, so that residents and family members will consider nursing home care a viable and positive option.

Caregivers exist everywhere. They are not only within health care facilities. Family members, friends, neighbors, and other professional agencies within the community are working together to provide and care for people in our aging population. Caregiving must be seen as teamwork. It takes the skill time, love, compassion, and patience of many people to provide care over a long period of time. It means sacrificing many other plans when committing yourself as a caregiver to assist in keeping a loved one at home. Many times, it takes tolerance and understanding.

One of the toughest dilemmas that Way or friends acting as caregivers face is deciding ff or when the task of providing caring ought to be relinquished to professional staff that can provide care on a twenty-four hour basis. FamiIy caregivers often feel guilty when such a decision is made. Frequently, they feel that they have 'Just not done enough," or they know tha "more is being expected of them," and that "nursing homes are to be avoided."

But we are all "caregivers together" Just because a loved one chooses to enter a nursing facility or asks for guidance making this decision, family and friends do not relinquish all responsibilities to that person. So many fami lies feel that they have turned over "caring for their loved one" to the staff members of a facility. And many times, staff members feel that they are the sole caregivers for the residents - and will convey that to families of residents. They provide the nursing care, prepare and serve the meals, clean the rooms, and do the laundry. In our facilities, church-related or proprietary, chaplains or community clergymen may feel that they attend to the spiritual ministry of resident needs. This may be why some families are more critical of the care being provided by staff members. They have relinquished all their responsibilties to others.