The churches have absolutely no one to blame but themselves. Turning spiritual care over to hospitals and being prey to budget cuts was something we learned not to do in 1990 in Ontario. The model is broken.

The model we largely use in many areas in Ontario is a shared funding model between churches and the hospital. We have a sucessful partnership with our six-site regional hospital that uses a lay co-ordinator and volunteer, trained lay and ordained pastoral visitors. We even run a CPE unit every spring in co-operation with Waterloo Lutheran seminary.

I'm well aware of what chaplains can do and what lay visitors can do. I'm trained in chaplaincy myself. I do lay visitor training in our hospital system. And some lay visitors do a better job than ordained ministers in some situations.

Good luck to BC. The model is broken. Time to buiuld a new foundation, I guess.

In your model DKS, (which BTW is different from where I am in Ontario) are the majority of people served Christian?   You mention only 'churches'.

Actually at one time, Hospitals themselves were founded & run by the churches - government was not involved at all.  So the provision of spiritual care was a 'no brainer' - naturally it would be a core service ... but probably only of the denomination which ran the hospital. 

Where I live & work, our community is extremely racially, culturally & religiously diverse.  To have specially trained chaplains who can deliver interfaith spiritual care is a huge challenge.  And it's not just for patients ... staff are also big users of these supports.

I was under the impression that chaplins, hospital clergy were there on a volentary basis

Where I work we have two paid interfaith chaplains.  They are both CAPPE certified.

We have a roster of volunteer local clergy & faith leaders who carry off-hours pagers on a rotational basis for emergency assistance at night and weekends. 

We have a legion of volunteer pastoral care visitors and clergy/faith leaders who visit people from their own churches or faith groups, or sometimes patients  from the same denomination or faith but who live out of the area. 

We have a Spiritual Care Council of diverse community & staff members who advise the hospital on matters of spiritual care as it pertains to its patients and staff. 

Our  paid chaplains assist the many volunteers with organization, orientation and support them in their visiting activities.  The paid chaplains respond immediately to emergency codes within the hospital, to provide support to family, and to staff both during and after the incidents.  They are part of the health care teams on palliative care and critical care units - so they get to know the staff, the routines, the needs of patients & families.   The paid chaplains also provide care to people who are "unchurched" or "spiritual, not religious" and desire a connection during hospitalization.  Community volunteers cannot provide services such as this, IMO.

Hope that clarifies a bit for you blackbelt.   There are many other configurations for provision of spiritual care as well - this is definitely not the only model.

that helps alot , all i know is when my wife was on life support in critical care, the chaplin of the hospital was so helpfull to me , spirtually and emotionally on a daily bases that i cannot put it into words how much i needed him.

carolla,

I'm glad you posted this.  This is troubling.

Two years ago I was titillated when I found out that Spirtuality was included as part of the local Health Care model.  A person's health was divided up into 5 different areas.  When I was taking an HCSW program, our curriculum went through each of the 5 different areas.  We were also taught aboot Patient-Centered Care, where the no 1 authority was the patient instead of the standard Doctor-Centered Care.

It makes sense to have Spiritual Advisors here, because of how diverse our cultures are in the GVRD (an area of some 17 cities and 2 electoral areas -- its HOOGE).  We're very independent and very future-looking (at the cost of the past).  At least 1/3 of us consider ourselves to be of "no religion."  Not atheist,  not agnostic, but of no religion.

I hope what this is going to do is it is going to get some innovative people to get their thinking caps on and think up other ways of doing this.  Perhaps a private enterprise model?  Just imagine, Spiritual Advisors competing with each other or a Spiritual Advisor temp agency :3

I hear ya, Blackbelt.  These people are skilled at what they do -- I think they are necessary at hospitals.  One of their greatest gifts, I think, is the ability to listen.  To be present for the people who are in stress.  To show that what they are experiencing is real and that it matters.  Kudos to those people who can do that.

The good news is that all these different Health Authorities are now ONE health authority.  Which should streamline things a lot.

Just a Self-writing poem,

InannaWhimsey

I'm so glad blackbelt that there was some who was there for you daily - likely it was a paid chaplain, as volunteers often are not so available.  Critical care can be such a frightening place and seeing a consistent face who can listen and walk that journey with you can be a great comfort.

Innana - one thing that's really interesting ... the Fraser Health Region had a very highly respected programme of providing excellence in Spiritual Care - based on careful research & developed over recent years.  In fact, I read somewhere that their Spiritual Directors  were often invited to conferences etc. to teach others about their model ... ironic.

carol I am so with  you on everything you said

I live in the Interior Health Authority region, which has been the most draconian with cuts out of all the health regions in BC. (I can provide stats if needed but was on a health watchdog group and this was part of the information we were given.) Anyway, spiritual directors were cut from our more rural hospitals many years ago -- although I believe that our tertiery care hospital in Kelowna still offers that kind of support. Who knows? It might have been cut too.

The reason this is making the news now is that the Fraser Health region has a much larger population than our sparsely populated health region and their collective protests garner more media. Also, they are the Bible belt of BC so it has likely hit some people as persecution of Christians, etc. Sorry if I sound a bit cynical but this isn't the first issue in cuts to health care that didn't hit the airwaves or print media when it happened in more remote communities but the s*** royally hits the fan when it happens in Vancouver or the Fraser Valley.

While I believe that it's very short-sighted to cut this kind of support to people in hospitals, if cuts are to be made, everyone should feel the pinch equally, in my opinion. I'm not saying that the same kinds of medical services should be available in rural areas, since obviously that's not realistic. But appropriate services should be offered everywhere. For example, our Health Region has the lowest number of long-term care beds available, per capita, than anywhere else in the province -- that's completely unfair and only one example of how skewed the system has become. That many voices (in the populated regions) make an awfully loud squeeky wheel.

I think these services should be reinstated but we are paying for the Olympics rather than health care and we know who benefits by that and who ends up losing. 'Twas ever thus...

This is an interesting topic.  Do military hospitals have chaplains?  I think that we should guarentee all Canadian citizens the basics that the military get . . . slowly irradicate the reason for having a military and we'd look more like Europeans but what the hey,  the states suck. 

Military bases have chaplains and their duties can include visiting members who are hospitalized but they are not military hospital chaplains exclusively, at least to my knowledge. Most military bases don't even have hospitals anymore either although there's probably still the odd one (Halifax, Ottawa...?) -- I'm not sure on that score.

Hi carolla

I don't know a thing about this except I was very surprised. I did recall reading that Vancouver had the most persons who stated they had no religion in the 2001 census I believe. The census on religion beliefs is taken every 10 years I think so a new one is due next year? I've no idea about the truth of it.  Could it have any bearing on what has happened I wonder?

Quotes: not sure of the year here:

 

Yes. But there is also a significant First Nations population with their spiritual needs. There is also a growing South Asian community, as well. Each of them has specific, unique spiritual requirements.

That is exactly right. And chaplains are often called on when other supports are not available. Chaplains do critical incident debriefing, sugment social work after hours, as well as augment some HR functions on top of religious duties. We have a lay co-ordinator for that very reason. While they are Christian, their training is multifaith and multicultural.

The Canadian Forces doesn't have military hospitals. They now largely purchase services from each provincial government. I know in our community, where we have a good-sized military base, anything more than a cut or a sprain goes to the local hospitals.

The Canadian Forces also has about 200 full-time chaplains; all officers and not all Christians. They work hard in a multifaith, multicultural setting. Our base has worship areas for Christian, Jewish and Muslim soldiers and the chaplain is charged with ensuring that other faiths have the facilities required for their spiritual practices.

Chaplains are considered integral parts of their unit. A friend of mine, a Major, was sent on four hours notice to Haiti.