Our Parish Nurse Program, the only one of its kind in an Armenian Church in the nation is now four years old. Under the guidance of & working with Der Aved, our parish nurse Sona Aslanian-Hargrove usually works from five to seven hours per week. Through home, hospital and nursing home visits, the  focus is on wellness and wholeness.  Our elders and families have an RN available to help them maintain their health, dignity and wholeness through connection to God, Church, family, community and others. Advocacy, education  personal counseling assist to appropriately navigate and utilize complicated health and social service systems. Quite simply, the goal of parish nursing is to enhance the quality of life of our parish elders, families and caregivers, often through challenging times.

Our Parish Nurse program helps our parishioners know that they are not forgotten during times of need and illness. They have a supportive, professional advocate and resource that answers questions, helps with admission coordination, with treatment plans, conferences, and discharge planning, with accessing medical and mental health care and community services.  Help is given with interpretation and understanding important issues such as scheduling, escorting and transporting to doctor’s appointments. Help is also given accessing basic needs such as proper food, medication, housing, fuel and nursing and  home care.  Individuals have received assistance with employment, Medicare, Medicaid and other benefits, comfort and guidance in dealing with caregiver, end of life issues, and on the loss of a loved one and family dynamics.  Parishioners benefit from therapeutic touch; telephone calls, spiritual support, prayer and bible reading; having a caring listener and even pet therapy. Parishioners have easy access to personal counseling; information and educational programs that help them make informed decisions about health and aging issues.

Quantitative measurements this year include: services to a over 65 different individuals; approximately 155 face to face contacts (plus bi-monthly visits to Avaks & many contacts with other professionals) and over 450  telephone calls to parishioners, family members and community contacts.  

As our population of elders age, we know that more people would benefit from continued contact and connection with the Church. We can and must do better, but your assistance is essential and you will find that the rewards received make your life more meaningful. Our focus is not  limited to increasing numbers but on making a real difference in the quality of parishioners’ daily lives,  including volunteers and elders to whom we owe so much.  More volunteers are needed to make additional friendly visits, and telephone calls. Therefore, the primary objectives  for the coming year will continue to be to: 1) further develop, better coordinate and increase the number of volunteer friendly visitors from the Church to homebound elders in particular. We would like to include an intergenerational component.  2) get an increased number of elders to Badarak and Church events; (transportation/escort is an issue.) 3) offer at least 4 programs on health and wellness. 4) work on communication challenges within the HIPPA laws, in order to provide additional and timely services to hospital patients and,  5) build community in the process.

We are so grateful for our committee members (new members are welcome) and volunteers who make friendly visits and offer help in many other ways. Put your faith into ACTION.  Make and feel a real difference.  Please call Sharon Sendrowski or me at the Church office if you would like to become involved in this program.

                                                                                                Respectfully submitted,    

                                                                                               Sona Aslanian-Hargrove

Sona Aslanian-Hargrove,  R.N. Parish Nurse