Join us to remember family, friends and care home residents who have died during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thursday 6th August | 7pm to 8pm (live via Zoom and Facebook Live via the Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice Facebook page)
With national guidelines leading to visiting restrictions in care homes across the city, many people have faced challenging times over the past few months, leaving them feeling, isolated, helpless and worried about the wellbeing of their loved ones, friends and neighbours.
Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice Care Homes Support Team have been working with care homes in Birmingham for almost two years, supporting staff with training, advice and guidance to enable good care at the end of life for residents and their loved ones. When the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, we redeployed our lead nurse specialist to work alongside Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Care Homes Team to ensure good end of life care support was available in these settings during the crisis.
The virtual memorial service is being organised in partnership with Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Voluntary Service Council and the Birmingham Council of Faiths and aims to unite and support communities during this uncertain time. Hosted on Zoom between 7-8pm on Thursday 6th August, the memorial service is free to join and open to all, including those whose loved ones have sadly died, current residents affected by the death of friends and neighbours and staff working in care homes.
The online event will open with words from Sharon Hudson, Community Development and Partnerships Lead at Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice and Steve McCabe MP. A selection of personal tributes will be shared and participants will be invited to light a candle of remembrance as they unite to remember loved ones in a minute’s silence, before joining together in multi-faith prayer and song.
Speaking ahead of the memorial service, Sharon Hudson said “Through our collaborative work with Birmingham care homes we recognised that there had been a large number of terribly sad deaths, with many people bereaved and suffering in isolation. As a Hospice, we wanted to offer a place where together people could remember those who had died, and receive support, in recognition of how greatly this has affected us as a whole Birmingham community.
“We designed a memorial service with colleagues and our friends at BVSC and the Birmingham Council of Faiths, which is being supported by our community with prayer, remembrance, music and poetry.”
If you are interested in joining the memorial service on 6th August, please register your interest today.
If you don’t have access to Zoom, you can also join by heading to our Facebook page at 7pm on Thursday where we will be streaming the service live.
