Interview with a Chaplain – Spiritual Care
The primary focus at Reid Health is on your complete health including your spiritual and emotional wellness. Our Chaplains are dedicated to providing you with spiritual care.
But what is spiritual care and how does it affect the healing process?
What is “spiritual care”?
Spirituality is different from religious faith. In broad terms spirituality is about what makes meaning in your life. Often this includes a faith or religion. But many people find their meaning in family friends service hobbies or work.
So spiritual care is about caring for people in their personal context. Often we see patients who are ill and having difficulty finding healing because they are so stressed and worried about issues unrelated to their own health. Spiritual care can be very important in this scenario. Consider a person who is having surgery for a wrist issue and their meaning is found in their love of painting. This can be a spiritual issue. For many people – even those without a particular faith – find themselves angry with God (or a higher power the universe) and have a need for spiritual care.
Every person is spiritual but not every person recognizes their spirituality. So spiritual care is very important in helping folks sort out those things in a way that will again enable them to live a life that is meaningful.
What if I’m not religious or what if I have my own clergy?
A foundation of spiritual care at Reid Health which helps guide our Chaplains is this: “Spiritual care addresses questions of identity meaning value and worth that may or may not be expressed in religious terms and enables those we serve to experience spiritual peace and healing.”
If you are not religious you still have those things in your life which make meaning – your personal spirituality. Our Chaplains work within the context of your spirituality not our own. We will support folks who have no faith those who have no pastor or church we have been a support for those who consider themselves atheist and agnostic.
We also support those who have their own faith community or clergy. Chaplains are trained differently than other clergy. Because of our training in understanding the intersection of health medicine spirituality and faith we can help folks navigate the spiritual part of their health journey in a place where some clergy might be uncomfortable or untrained. And we often work hand in hand with local clergy in providing spiritual support to their members.
What does a chaplain actually do?
Wow. That’s a loaded question! The short answer is that we provide spiritual and emotional support to the people we serve including: patients families and staff. How we do that depends on the specific need. A lot of the time we listen. Many people simply need to be able to process what they are feeling in a nonjudgmental space. Some need to vent. And there are those who just need to know that somebody cares.
At Reid Health our Chaplains respond to emergency situations in all patient care areas. We also respond to many requests from patients their families and our staff members. These requests may be for a variety of needs ranging from prayer before a procedure to end of life needs. Chaplains also practice presence which is sitting (or standing) in silence when that is most helpful. In addition Chaplains do what most people would expect. We read Scripture and/or inspirational readings and we pray with people. Here at Reid our Chaplains – from time to time – sing. Listen for us at Christmas time!
Reid Health Chaplains are dedicated to serving the needs of patients families and staff. Their primary purpose is to offer compassionate spiritual care and emotional support which can serve as resources for healing.
Chaplain services are available at no additional cost. Requests for a Chaplain visit can be made through nursing staff.