Swine Flu Update

The H1N1 virus (commonly known as Swine Flu) is prompting a growing number of public institutions to close or dramatically change their daily routines. Church groups feel a special responsibility to protect their members and to offer support during times of crisis, but this mission is challenged during an epidemic when public gatherings pose a potential health risk. In times like these, congregations must decide how best to minimize the risk while continuing to provide pastoral care and practical assistance to their members and communities.

Six Simple Ways for Churches to Respond to Flu Season   From the Pacific Central District Newsletter   Health officials estimate that 80% of disease transmission could be avoided if we all were better at washing our hands more frequently. Now would be a great time to pay more attention to that. Here are half a dozen other things our congregations can do this year:  
  1. Place bottles of hand sanitizer in classrooms, offices, and even the sanctuary/lobby. Encourage those who handle the Offertory donations to be especially good about washing their hands afterwards.
  2. Be sure to have the nursery and children’s toys sanitized each week - this is a good all-year-round idea anyway.
  3. Instruct the greeters to warmly welcome visitors without shaking hands - many visitors may feel uncomfortable with such physical contact this season anyway.
  4. Develop a simple Nursery and RE Classroom policy, and be sure all the parents know about it. This can be as basic as saying, “As part of our efforts to keep our church/fellowship a healthy and safe place, we ask that you keep children at home if they’ve had a cough or runny nose within the last 24 hours, or have had a fever within the last 48 hours. We appreciate everyone’s cooperation.”
  5. Encourage everyone to stay home when they aren’t feeling well! This should include staff, the Music Director, DRE, and our ministers. But, let’s face it, they’re going to be mighty reluctant to stay home if there’s not a back up plan in place for their absences.
  6. So let’s create those back up plans. One example of such a plan is Church-in-a-Box: it’s a box of materials, all ready to go whenever needed, including a sermon that a Worship Associate has already become familiar with, easy-to-play hymnal selections, opening, offertory, and closing words, and several copies of an undated Order of Service. Let’s make it comfortable for all staff to call someone on a Sunday morning to say, “You know, just to be on the safe side, I think I’d better stay home today.”
 

The US government has created a website at flu.gov. Several congregations are taking tidbits from thies website and including it in each newsletter to help congregants protect themselves. One suggestion is to avoid communal bowls of food during coffee hour, as this increases the risk of the spread of the virus.

The UUA has posted a number of public health resources for congregations and their leaders at
http://www.uua.org/leaders/leaderslibrary/crisisplanning/ .

You can also find materials from the UU Trauma Response Ministry at www.traumaministry.org/resources_flu.htm

Resources include planning tools, information, and concrete suggestions for dealing with a public health threat, including the current H1N1 virus. Also included are materials designed to inform and protect the immigrant community, a group doubly at-risk because it has been unfairly targeted as responsible for the crisis.

You can find additional resources at:

http://www.lcms.org/ca/worldrelief/dnews/documents/200904_Congregational_Planning_for_Flu_Pandemic.pdf (from the Lutherans)

The CDC has created a check list for Faith Based Groups. Download a pdf file at:

http://www.pandemicflue.gov/plan/pdf/faithbasedCommunityChecklist.pdf

For additional suggestions, check out the Metro NY Flu page at http://uumetrony.org/flu.htm