ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM
No one in children’s ministry wants to have to deal with lice, but it is almost inevitable. The best thing you can do is simply be prepared to deal with it. Educate yourself and then design a lice policy. Use this article and articles listed under Additional Resources as your starting point. Having a clear plan of action is the best way to be ready for the times when lice decide to visit your church. Here are several key areas you want to address to be fully prepared.
1. TRAINING
Regularly train your volunteers in the following areas:
How to detect lice? Teach them to look for visible signs like a child repeatedly scratching their head.
How to isolate a child without embarrassing them and scaring or confusing the rest of the class? Train your volunteers to give dignity to the child with head lice. It isn’t the child’s fault. Children’s leaders should be careful not to act repulsed by the child or angry toward them, remembering this is a very embarrassing situation for a school age child. Think through these questions: Where will the child be taken for hair inspection? Who will do the inspection? How will you make sure that a child is always with at least two adults?
How to check for lice? Train your volunteers how to examine the area behind the ears and at the nape of their neck. Most likely, your church has a school nurse who will be willing to pass her knowledge to your team.
What to do in case the lice have been detected? Who will go get the parents? Who will talk to the parents? The best way to serve the family of the infected child is for you to stay calm and give parents confidence, helpful tips and tools. It might be a good idea to put together “Lice-B-Gone” packs with a nit comb, shampoo, and a little guide outlining some of the steps they can take to get rid of the six-legged parasites.
How to keep your cool? Above everything else, it’s absolutely important that your volunteers stay calm and be ready to calm down distraught parents. While pretty much everyone finds lice to be creepy and gross, they really have been a fact of life in human society for a very long time. Just understanding that they aren’t dirty and don’t carry disease is a good start. Lice really aren’t anything more than a pest that takes a bit more effort than most to eradicate. No one is going to get hurt!
How to get rid of lice? My guess is that possession of lice fighting skills wasn’t included on your job description, however some parents may be looking to you and your volunteers for solutions. Be sure to be able to answer their questions as simply and accurately as possible. Don’t feel like you have to get into all the brands or types of lice treatments. (The fact is that coconut oil and shampoo will work as effectively as most commercial products, without any harsh chemicals.) What most commercial or time-proven natural products do is simply kill and flush away the adult lice. This is the easy part!
