About Us
The Canadian Mennonite Health Assembly is a group of healthcare providers who were founded through the Mennonite people. We continue to serve the healthcare needs of individuals as faith-based providers – many retaining Mennonite leadership through their Boards and Executive Leaders.
We gather annually to find encouragement, teaching and connection in the common bonds that we share. We invite those of you who provide healthcare from a Christian faith perspective to join us. Be inspired. Connect together… and Lead!
CMHA Executive Committee
Sharon Simpson, President
Director, Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, MennoPlace, Abbotsford, BC
Jim Williams, Vice-President
Administrator, Fairview Mennonite Home, Cambridge, ON
Joan Lemauviel, Secretary
Administrator/CEO, Mennonite Nursing Home, Rosthern, SK
What are Mennonite Health Organizations?
(Adapted from Manitoba Mennonite Health Service Organization)
Mennonite health and human service organizations are those organizations that are owned and sponsored by the Mennonite community and entrusted with the task of providing healthcare and/or human services for both the Mennonite community and the general public. As organizations that have accepted a public trust and that receive public funds, we have an obligation to meet or exceed regulatory and professional standards. As organizations that are sponsored by the Mennonite community which sees the provision of healthcare not just as a task but also as a ministry entrusted to us by Christ, we have an obligation to provide health and human services in a manner that is consistent with and expressive or our Mennonite values and ethics.
Because we are sponsored by the Mennonite community, we establish our policies, set our goals and evaluate our activities in light of a particular set of values which is deeply rooted in our Christian faith and Mennonite heritage. In all that we do, we strive to follow the example of Christ who healed the sick, comforted the sorrowful and welcomed the outcast.
Values
As Mennonite organizations, we are committed to protecting, supporting and promoting the following values:
- Spirituality and Prayer
- Community, Mutuality and Service
- Human Dignity and Compassion for All People
- Stewardship
- Justice
- Peace and Reconciliation
- Ethical Rigor
1. Spirituality and Prayer
When we use the words “Mennonite” or “Anabaptist/Mennonite” to describe our organization, we state our commitment to:
- Provide a means for responding to the spiritual needs of those we serve.
- Support and encourage prayer and spiritual development as an integral component of health.
- Respond to suffering and death as a part of life.
- Place value on helping people to find hope in all situations.
- Help those we serve, their families and our staff to understand that healing is always possible even if “cure” is impossible.
- Provide spiritual support for staff.
- Maintain connections with a faith community that commits to pray for our organization and for the people we serve.
- Respect the personal spirituality of each individual.
- Develop and provide a staff which values and respects the resources of the Christian Faith and the heritage of Anabaptist/Mennonite health and human services.
2. Community, Mutuality and Service
When we use the words “Mennonite” or “Anabaptist/Mennonite” to describe our organization, we state our commitment to:
- Place an emphasis on incorporating those we serve into the larger community as Christ did.
- Establish connections and provide collaborative opportunities between the larger community and the organization which will make it easier for individuals to move from one to the other without feeling lost or abandoned.
- Help those we serve to attain the highest possible levels of autonomy and input into decisions involving their care and support.
- Involve families, the local community and the faith community in the decision making process wherever possible.
- Recognize that the people we serve have something to offer the community as well as something which they need from the community.
- Establish an atmosphere that is respectful of and sensitive to the cultural customs of those we serve and their families.
- Provide opportunities for members of the community to participate in the work of caring, healing and supporting.
- Develop structures which provide for co-responsibility, accountability and communication among organization staff.
- Collaborate with other groups and institutions in the community which are part of the health and human services continuum.
- Provide ongoing educational opportunities and resources to staff, patients/residents/clients, families and members of the community in order to develop and promote a communal commitment to the best possible healthcare and other human services.
- Provide means for the faith community to reflect upon and evaluate the work of the organization in light of the Bible and offer feedback to the organization’s board.
3. Human Dignity and Compassion for all People
When we use the words “Mennonite” or “Anabaptist/Mennonite” to describe our organization, we state our commitment to:
- Recognize the image of God in all: those we serve, staff and members of the community.
- Support and protect the dignity and equal worth of every person regardless of factors such as: race, creed, gender, national origin, age, ability, social standing, stage of life, health, or lifestyle.
- Respect the wholeness of each person (those we serve, their families and our staff) and respond with care and compassion to their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs.
- Respect individuals’ rights to pursue the services and approaches they desire.
- Protect and promote individual’s rights to privacy and confidentiality.
- Establish policies and practices which enhance the sense of self-worth among both our staff and those we serve.
- Establish policies that are sufficiently flexible to allow for individual circumstances, policies that are person focused rather than task focused. (Those we serve, their families and our staff should always be treated as individuals, never as “conditions.”)
- Provide means for those we serve, their families and our staff to give feedback regarding the ways in which compassion is expressed and dignity promoted with the organization.
4. Stewardship of God’s Gifts
When we use the words “Mennonite” or “Anabaptist/Mennonite” to describe our organization, we state our commitment to:
- Practice and demonstrate careful stewardship of resources.
- Consider all available resources (both human and material) when addressing problems and use those that are least interventionist first.
- Establish policies which allow decisions to be made and care to be provided at the most primary levels of competency.
- Recognize and esteem our staff (both paid and volunteer) as highly valued resources and treat them with respect and care.
- Examine the ways in which the Anabaptist emphasis on simple living might shape policies and practices within our organization.
- Use Christian principles of justice and ethics as the basis for evaluating budget priorities.
- Provide means for those we serve, their families and members of the community to identify healthcare needs that are not being met. Use Christian principles of justice and ethics as the basis for evaluating those needs and our responsibility as a healthcare provider to address them.
5. Justice
When we use the words “Mennonite” or “Anabaptist/Mennonite” to describe our organization, we state our commitment to:
- Work to make healthcare and other human services accessible to all who need them.
- Demonstrate a commitment to look beyond the immediate medical problem and address the larger social issues which contribute to it.
- Advocate for the needs of those who are marginalized within our healthcare and human service systems.
- Examine the ways in which the Anabaptist emphasis on mutual aid might shape policies and practices with our organization.
- Examine our employment practices (e.g. compensation, promotion, vacation, sick leave, family leave, discipline and dismissal) in light of Christian principles of justice paying particular attention to the ways we respond to those who are most vulnerable.
6. Peace and Reconciliation
When we use the words “Mennonite” or “Anabaptist/Mennonite” to describe our organization, we state our commitment to:
- Establish policies which allow us to respond to violence and anger with peace and love.
- Avoid the use of coercion. Minimize the use of restraints and drugs to control behavior and minimize the use of other processes which significantly reduce or devalue the input of the person in need of care and support.
- Establish policies for responding to conflicts in a way that promotes reconciliation.
- Provide a process for those we serve, their families and members of the community to make their concerns heard and have them resolved so that frustration and anger do not build unnecessarily.
- Provide a process for staff to make their concerns heard and have them resolved so that frustration and anger do not build.
7. Ethical Rigor
When we use the words “Mennonite” or “Anabaptist/Mennonite” to describe our organization, we state our commitment to:
- Consistently ask the question: what is ethical from the perspective of the values we have chosen?
- Ensure that all members of our staff know and respect the fundamental values of our organization.
- Provide a means for those we serve, their families and our staff to discern the ethical issues involved in the decisions which they face. Respect the perspectives of all who are involved in the decision making process.
- Provide education for staff, those we serve, their families and members of the community on ethical issues that are relevant to the orientation and work of the organization.
- Regularly review our activities, policies and procedures to ensure that Anabaptist/Mennonite values are being upheld and promoted.
- Invite the faith community to participate in ongoing dialogues concerning healthcare and human service ethics.