Introduction

Care Team Ministry
Replication Education Module

Background on Care Team
   Concept Development
History of Care Team Ministry
Definitions
Description and Parameters
Where Can Care Team Ministry
    Be Established?
How Do Teams Work?
Why Only 1-2 Hours?
Referrals
Calling Volunteers
Risk Management/Background
    Checks
Training
Care Team Established
Support of Volunteers
Ongoing Reporting
Cycle of Care Teams
Lessons Learned
Forming a Care Team Ministry -
    How to Get Started
Orientation for Organizations:
    Step 1, 2, 3
Media Information
Research & Resources
Conclusion and Sending Forth
Care Team Ministry Forms

Care Team Ministry
Volunteer Guidebook

Description and Parameters of Normandale’s Care Team Ministry Program

The Care Team Ministry model at Normandale brings together a faith-centered service organization, trained volunteers, care receivers, and caregivers. Normandale serves all who come to seek a Care Team Ministry team of volunteers for support—within the parameters of the program and geography. All are welcome, whether they are a member of Normandale Lutheran Church or not. Geographic boundaries are set up (Edina and surrounding communities) because it is difficult to ask volunteers to drive long distances, at their own expense, to provide Care Team Ministry support.

The Normandale Care Team Ministry is “doing what a friend would do for a friend.” Many of us have good intentions to visit a friend…call a friend…or meet with a friend. The reality is that most of us are pulled in many directions with the demands on our schedules preventing us from those intended visits…calls…and meetings with friends who need us.
The Normandale Care Team Ministry concentrates on serving the needs of seniors who are undergoing transitions or limitations in their physical condition—and, by extension—some of the respite care needs of family caregivers. With a longer life expectancy, comes the very real possibility of multiple losses, i.e., loss of spouse, loss of long-time family home, loss of close friends, loss of independence, loss of good health and loss of the ability to drive. The Care Team Ministry cannot answer all the needs of a senior, but rather the Ministry concentrates on answering one primary need of the senior and/or caregiver.

Volunteers cannot provide any medical care or personal care assistance (i.e., no help with bathing, transferring, dressing, toileting), but they can provide such things as:

• Friendly visiting in the elder’s residence
• Transportation (e.g., rides to doctor visits, hair appointments)
• Shopping assistance
• Occasional help with chores or yard work
• Someone who will read to the elder
• Telephone check-in or reassurance

Volunteers do not serve as bath aides, do not administer medications and do not lift or transfer. These needs are to be filled by health care professionals.

The focus of the Volunteer Care Team is on a one primary need for non-medical support. This focus is determined through an evaluation between the Care Team Ministry Coordinator, the Care Receiver (senior) and the Caregiver. The evaluation can be informal, but will usually include a discussion about current functional issues, how the senior and family are coping, and what they are most interested in having a volunteer do for them. A channel of communication is established, and the family and senior understand that any changes to volunteer duties will be made through the Care Team Ministry Coordinator. Through this standard practice of open communication, the Normandale Care Team Ministry has experienced success.

Once the focus for the service is established for that senior/family, the Care Team Ministry Coordinator will recruit volunteers. It is important to realize that the Normandale Care Team Ministry Coordinator puts together the volunteer team around a senior’s specific needs. A senior may have been a teacher of young people and an avid reader, but now experiences loss of vision and is lonely. The Coordinator may seek out younger volunteers (over 18) who are willing to read to the senior periodically. Perhaps another senior no longer drives, and lives alone—the senior’s family lives out-of-state. This senior expresses an interest in going grocery shopping, but needs help getting there and taking the grocery bags out of the car. The Coordinator may seek out a driver who can also carry the groceries safely into the senior’s home.

While assisting the senior, trained Care Team volunteers are often providing on-going and much needed respite for the family caregiver—especially those caregivers who are attending to the senior on a daily basis. These family caregivers are often faced with seemingly never-ending responsibilities of meeting the needs of not only their loved one(s), but also their own needs and perhaps the needs of younger family members. Faced with this continuum of pressure, family caregivers are at risk of suffering decline in physical and emotional health.