Caregiving and COVID: Family Life – ‘The New Normal at Home’ as the Holidays Approach – Impacts and Opportunities

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November 19, 2020  – View Webinar Now!

November is National Caregiving Month

Title:  Caregiving and COVID: Family Life – ‘The New Normal at Home’ as the Holidays Approach – Impacts and Opportunities

A fresh look at ministering to families through the lens of an ever-expanding definition of caregiver, newly released impacts on millennials, and how living in a “full house” presents both challenges and new ways to heal families across generations.

Kelly Johnson and Deb Kelsey-Davis, Co-Founders of Nourish for Caregivers and Co-Authors, “The Caregiver’s Companion”, recently released by Ave Maria Press:

  • Kelly Johnson is currently responsible for Adult Faith Formation at St. Mary of Gostyn Parish in Downers Grove and a recent graduate of the Archdiocese of Chicago and Diocese of Joliet’s Lay Leadership Institute’s Lay Leadership Certification program. Along with her husband Bob, she is mother to 2 amazing sons and, as Kelly would say, she’s “continually awed at the ways in which God stretches and blesses her”.
  • Deb Kelsey-Davis is a registered nurse by training and a lifelong healthcare leader. She is a Board member of the National Association of Catholic Nurses and obtained her Lay Ministry Certification from the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Called and Gifted Program.  She and her husband are very proud of their 2 adult children, knowing without a doubt it was by the grace of God that they’ve become the wonderful people they are.

Together, Kelly and Deb developed  Nourish for Caregivers:

  • A faith-based ministry to care for caregivers. Nourish provides the tools and resources to minister to family caregivers’ practical, emotional and spiritual needs through a curriculum that addresses the most common and challenging issues caregivers face. Nourish, today, is in 25 diocese across the country. Deb and Kelly’s mission is to see family caregivers have the resources and spiritual support they need in their very own local faith communities.

Be Not Afraid: Pastoral Care for Families Receiving a Poor Prenatal Diagnosis

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October 15, 2020  View Webinar Now!

Tracy Winsor is the co-founder of Be Not Afraid, a national case management and peer ministry service supporting parents carrying to term following a prenatal diagnosis.

Working in the field of parent advocacy around prenatal diagnosis for over twelve years, Tracy has provided direct support to over 200 families welcoming infants with life-limiting disability. Her focus within this advocacy is the development of birth and newborn care plans.    Earlier this year, her work around planning for these babies was the subject of a chapter published by the NCBC in their resource text, Catholic Health Care Ethics: A Manual for Practitioners.

The picture is her holding the first baby welcomed by BNA. Hailey Grace had Trisomy13, and a complicated heart and brain.  Born still, her brief life commissioned the work of BNA…a story Tracy will share…by making clear how a Catholic ministry could generate referrals from the medical community that often considers babies like Hailey Grace “throw away babies.”