Great Dominion
...Holding hands together
Background
As a patient in hospital one can feel quite vulnerable and lacking in confidence. This sense of insecurity and uncertainty can become all the more pronounced when one’s baby and/or an older child is the patient. When Dominion was in hospital his parents recognised the need for additional support relevant to their faith and culture as well as greater clarity required to grasp the medical understanding associated with their needs. It is to this end that the Great Dominion Charity has been set up.
According to Baby Life Support System (BLISS) research has shown that every year over 100,000 babies are cared for by neonatal units in the UK because they have either been born prematurely or have a genetic problem. This means that around 1 in 7 babies born in the UK are admitted to a neonatal unit each year. Dominion happened to be one of such babies.
Mission
Great Dominion has been
established to support families from diverse backgrounds
within Special Care Baby Units in the United Kingdom and
Nigeria by:
- Creating a greater sense of serene and emotionally comfortable environment for both babies and their families. Such a care environment will encourage concerns to be raised and pertinent questions asked in a peaceful space with understanding and mutual respect.
- Promoting greater harmony and mutual respect for families’ cultural, emotional and faith/belief needs (including those with no faith/belief), when presented with medical diagnosis or prognosis with regards to their baby or older child.
Objectives of the charity
To advance the above aims, the Charity will provide the following:
Mental Health Support
To help reduce psychological stress on families facing challenging medical situations, especially during life threatening moments,
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when difficult decisions concerning their babies could lead to a state of feeling overwhelmed, emotional and/or confused.
Spiritual and Cultural Support
The Charity will engage with families and medical staff to promote a better understanding of their needs based on the faith and culture of the family in question. Such shared understanding of faith and culture.
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not based on assumption will lead to an improved quality of care for the both patient and their family and erode any misconceptions whilst taking on board medical care plans offered by the medical team.
Where a certain faith or cultural need is beyond the ability of the Charity to fulfil, families will be referred to an appropriate and vetted organisation in the locality best placed to meet such need in a similar way to the Great Dominion.
Physical and Material Support
Creating a friendly family orientated atmosphere for both the medical team and families in these special circumstances of heightened anxiety. This may include the providing of comfort blankets and flasks for hot.
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drinks etc. or any other material support within the capacity of the charity and without breaching hospital policies.
Mediation and Psychological Support
Whilst the Charity is aware of readily available support through the hospital’s chaplaincy, counselling and
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listening therapy teams; it will liaise with these channels of support to ensure that families identified as being in need of them are referred and supported accordingly.
In addition, where necessary, the Charity will promote the use of an identified mediation service to ameliorate the relationships between hospital team(s) and families where there’s communication/relationships have collapsed and is likely to affect positive outcomes for both sides. Ultimately, this is to promote and maintain better pathways towards more compassionate and respectful care and communication.
Bereavement support for siblings of neonates
We help children and young people (up to age 17) rebuild their lives when they lose a
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sibling in special care; as children are often forgotten and as individuals who require support to deal with grief.
Consultation and Engagement
As a Charity at the forefront of supporting babies and their parents in ‘special care’ we will facilitate and
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encourage participation in relevant engagement and consultation exercises to ensure that they have a voice that will influence lasting change in the delivery of health care and other relevant services, which reflect their needs.
Connecting parents
During their time in hospital we will enable parents of special care babies who wish to connect with other parents of
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‘former special care babies’ in their locality; to establish a relationship so that their post-discharge transition is not an isolating experience.
Vision
To strive towards excellence by providing effective and reliable responses to identified and additional needs of families of special care babies.
November 2022 Upcoming Event:
coming Events:
