in the
Supportive Care Model

     The classic booklet "Supportive Care in the Congregation" includes the essential ingredients outlined below. For more background on the booklet and ADNet's interest in its ongoing relevance, see the Supportive Care home page. 

     We hope the introduction below will whet your appetite to discover for yourself the wealth of ideas that are part of our Anabaptist heritage in this booklet. This introduction is also available in the May 2009 issue of ADNotes or in outline form.  Order the booklet at the right.

1. Challenging the church to care

     Supportive Care was and is a response and counter-movement to society’s trend toward treating disability services as a business or commodity. The booklet’s authors lament that care motivated by Christian values is often “lost to expedience and the profit motive.” The Supportive Care model challenges the church “to recapture the early New Testament church’s vision for caring for its own and the needy in the community within the family of faith.” 

2. Clarifying underlying values  

     Supportive Care recognizes and affirms the concern that families have for quality of life, continuity of care, and financial security for their dependent loved ones. The model affirms Anabaptist theological traditions of agape love, service, hospitality, and mutuality in the body of Christ. 

     Supportive Care further assumes that congregations have the means of providing significant support, mutual care, and nurture to persons with disabilities and their families. It recognizes that human beings experience wholeness as we participate in supportive, caring communities. 

3. A plan of congregational action 

     The central feature of Supportive Care is the formation of Supportive Care Groups. Such groups are based in and accountable to a local congregation. Their emphasis is on strengthening the natural network of relationships for the person who is the group’s focus.  

4. Describing roles within the group

     Supportive Care outlines roles for group members, beginning with the dependent person and his/her family members. Significantly, other group members take on roles that were previously assumed mainly by parents. These roles include guardian, friend, monitor of values and principles, program advocate, steward (trustee), spiritual mentor, medical advocate, parent partner, and worrier.

5. An implementation process  

     Supportive Care suggests a process for implementing the plan of action within the congregation. Steps in formation include:

• Initiation by congregational leadership and preparation of congregation
• Formation of group and training
• Developing support group covenant and congregational covenant
• Legal and financial arrangements

6. A larger resource network

     From its outset, Supportive Care envisioned a network beyond the congregation for resourcing Supportive Care Groups. The wider network would monitor and resource local care groups through the work of a facilitator and special training events. Regional networking groups would sponsor retreats, celebrations, and educational seminars. The network would also provide connections with a churchwide disability office and denominational foundations.

     While a few of these elements materialized, the full emergence of such a network has been limited by budgetary realities.  

Supportive Care Revisited

     ADNet would value your feedback on the usefulness of the Supportive Care model in today’s world. We also want to hear your stories about how congregations have been involved in providing aspects of supportive care for individuals with diverse disabilities and their families.