ABSTRACT
Ageing provides a variety of physiological and social changes that invariably impact on health. It is these changes that Faith Community Nursing (also known as Parish Nursing or Pastoral Nursing) is potentially able to address. Faith community nursing is a specialist nursing practice distinguished by its endorsement of a faith-based perspective of the person, which focuses nursing care on integration, nurture and restoration of the whole person in all their dimensions (physical, intellectual, psychosocial, spiritual). Faith community nurses (FCNs) help people with existing diseases or complex conditions to better manage their illness, thus enabling them to maximise their quality of living. However, FCNs primarily focus on promoting the preconditions for personal and community health, by fostering healthy relationships, addressing social justice issues and providing education and support to people regarding faith and health issues. All these activities are undertaken in the context, and with the support of the faith community. The FCN's clients are not restricted to the faith community; thus the program has the capacity to reach into the wider geographic and/or cultural community that group serves. l
THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Loneliness and Isolation
Increasing numbers of older persons will face their senior years alone. Currently two thirds of Australians (65-75 years) are married, but this figure is set to change radically in the future. Fewer people are choosing to marry, family sizes are decreasing, divorce and separation rates are increasing, so many people are left without the support of partners or children in their senior years.2 The increasing mobility of Australian society has contributed to these changing family dynamics, with many children living far away from their aging parents. This fragmentation of marriages and families takes an emotional toll on relationships between children and their parents, leaving many elderly disconnected and isolated from family.
