Why Someone Cares?
Our motivation for Someone Cares comes from Psalm 147:3
“He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds”
It can be heart breaking to be the parent of a child who is ill in hospital and whole families can end up with invisible wounds as they emotionally (and practically) deal with the difficult and intensely painful situation. Our aim is to show God’s love to these families in any way that we can.
What is Someone Cares?
Someone Cares provides support to the families of children who are admitted to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. We do this in three ways:
1. Care Packs - We provide items that hopefully make an unplanned hospital admission a little easier: pyjamas for children who arrive without any and toiletry bags for the parents/carers, which contain the essentials for that first night in hospital.
2. Prayer – Our care packs include a flyer with details of how families can request prayer and spiritual care from the Spiritual Care Team at Alder Hey and Freedom Church. We want to stand with families at these difficult moments and show them that they are not alone - someone really does care about them, and is committed to praying for their situation.
3. Support – We have a team of people who volunteer with the Spiritual Care Centre at Alder Hey to visit families on the wards. This team supports the chaplains by working alongside them in supporting parents and families of children admitted to the hospital.
How can Someone Cares help me?
If you’ve arrived here by scanning the QR code on the flyer in your care pack, we are sorry that you are in this situation right now. If you feel able to make contact with the Alder Hey Spiritual Care team via the information on the flyer, they would love to visit you and offer a listening ear. More information about the Spiritual Care services provided by Alder Hey can be found here.
Who is Someone Cares?
Someone Cares is made up of a group from Freedom Church Liverpool who are all registered volunteers with the Spiritual Care Team and proud to be part of the Alder Hey family. These are the faces you will meet if you would like a visit while you’re in hospital. They are Bill, Ann, Chris, Jenni and Claudine.
Resources
We have put together a playlist of songs that you might find helpful to listen to. Songs can be particularly helpful at expressing our emotions when we can’t find the words ourselves.
Some people find writing down their thoughts and feelings to be a helpful way of processing what is happening. Here is a link to a free online journal if that is something you would like to try - Penzu.com