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.