Chester Diocese
News Item
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Pioneering launch for parish nurse in our Diocese …
THERE’S now a modern parish nurse operating in Hyde – the first in the North of England. Lifelong Anglican Jenny Bennison is working among clients in the northern part of Hyde in Tameside near Manchester. The purpose of a parish nurse is to embody the spiritual needs of faith communities within the day-to-day healthcare processes. Hyde scores highly in the Government’s index of multiple deprivation. Local clergy report high numbers of deaths among the under-60s from lung and heart disease and poor health among local children. It is also the area where public confidence in health professionals took a battering following the conviction in January 2000 of local GP Harold Shipman for multiple murder. For these reasons Hyde was chosen as the location for one of seven parish nurses to be launched across England and Wales. Mrs Bennison, a qualified nurse and health visitor, is working in St Stephen’s, Newton Flowery Fields and St Thomas’s, Hyde (the C of E parishes where her husband, the Revd Philip Bennison is priest-in-charge), and St Mary’s, Newton, where the vicar is the Revd Ian Watts. Mrs Bennison said: “Where there is trouble, I go in and listen and offer support and liaise with the medical services.” The Revd Phillip Bennison, who has experience as a hospital chaplain, added: “I am sure the parish nursing scheme will make a big difference to the health and quality of life of our parishes and it will draw people closer together to give each other spiritual support. “Already we have been very encouraged by the speed with which people in the three parishes have offered to help.” The £60,000 project has been set up with funding from the Church Urban Fund, the Diocese of Chester and Churches Together in England. Jenny is one of seven parish nurses across the country chosen for the launch of parish nursing in the UK. (13/09/04)
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Jenny as she is today
Jenny as a young nurse in the 1960s |
