Chaplain's Corner

How often have you complained that there just aren’t enough resources to meet the needs? I know I have bemoaned that fact more than a few times. It seems that this is a perennial problem for families, for churches, for government agencies, for just about every one, excepting the few odd folks in the world that have more money than they really know what to do with.

In my field, spiritual care, this is a critical problem. Did you know that in Southern Health / Santé Sud there are 3 regional hospitals, 11 small satellite hospitals, 21 personal care homes and 3 small sites that combine hospital and personal care. That’s 38 facilities where sick and aging people are cared for yet only 13 of these sites have any spiritual services and in 2 of these sites they get spiritual care services 1 day a week. Of these 13 sites that offer spiritual care services the vast majority of the funding for these positions comes from donation dollars given through foundations. There is a huge gap between what is available and what is needed in our regions health care facilities in terms of spiritual care. And there is no money.

Now, our baser nature could quickly begin the process of belly-aching about this. We could site way after way that we believe the provincial government is wasting money or allocating it in ways that don’t fit what we believe to be the appropriate priorities. This happens every day, about a hundred different issues and you know what? It is absolutely unproductive. In fact it is counter-productive, for that attitude sours our own spirits and the spirits of those around us.

Over the past five years I have been sitting on the Provincial Spiritual Care Management Network, a body sponsored by Manitoba Health, made up of representatives from the various Regions of the Province, that strategize about how quality spiritual care might be provided in a more equitable way in the many facilities in the Province who have no spiritual care services at all. One of the strategies that was developed was the development of a Spiritual Care Volunteer Training course that could be used throughout the province to train spiritually-minded folks in some of the unique and particular things that need to be considered when providing spiritual care in a public facility like a hospital or personal care home. We know that trained volunteers can not replace professional spiritual care givers, but trained volunteers can certainly provide a level of support that doesn’t presently exist.

Over the past 4 years, a group of about ten individuals have worked hard to develop this training material. The result is a 10 module course titled: The Spirit of Caring: A Volunteer Education Resource. This course has already been taught in the Northeastern region, the Interlake region and up in the Norman Region (Flin Flon and La Pas). This past spring I taught the core five modules at one of the churches in Steinbach with very positive response. This fall for the first time in our region I want to offer the first five core modules to the public.

The purpose of offering this is two-fold: First, to offer to anyone interested the opportunity to volunteer in one of our regional sites offering spiritual care to those who wouldn’t otherwise receive this service while they are in hospital or in a long term care facility. The second is to provide an opportunity for spiritually minded people who may not be considering a volunteer opportunity to develop their own understanding what it means to care for another person spiritually. Let me share briefly a summary of the content in thes first five core modules of the training.

In the first module we will work hard to develop an understanding of spirituality, of spiritual dis-ease and of spiritual health. It often amazes me how often I use words but when someone stops me and asks me, “What do you mean?” I have a difficult time explaining. I have found this to be the case with the word “spiritual”. It is a widely used word today but do we know what it means? Because the training is all about providing spiritual care, our exploration will begin with a look into the meaning of spirituality, spiritual dis-ease and spiritual health. We will also take some time to explore how one should understand the spiritual diversity that exists in our world today.

In the second module we will focus on communication. Isn’t it strange that we need to talk about communication when we all do it everyday. Well, I guess the reality is that although we all communicate, we often don’t accomplish with our communication what we intend. I can remember so many times when I have believed that I communicated something with absolute clarity only to discover that the person or persons I was talking to didn’t receive the message I thought I was communication. This is a common, so we will spend some time talking about the important considerations involved in communicating with people who are sick or infirmed by advanced age as well as the unique sensitivities that are required when we seek to communicate on a spiritual level.

In the third sessions we will talk about the responsibilities of a spiritual care visitor in terms of how to go about interacting with another person about spiritual matters. Spirituality is a very personal matter; many people do not talk openly about their spiritual lives, especially to strangers. If you would chose to become a spiritual care volunteer you would be encountering strangers to support them spiritually as they face the challenges of sickness and aging. Doing this requires courage joined with sensitivity.

In the fourth session we will think together about how to find the “spiritual” in a conversation. Interestingly, in almost every conversation we have, our spirituality is present, whether it is a couple of guys talking hockey, or some women chatting over a cup of coffee. Because every person is a spiritual being, our spirituality is being expressed all the time, we simply don’t recognize it. In this session we will talk about how we can learn to “see” the spiritual threads that appear in every conversation and how to invite reflection about spiritual matters without offending or putting the other person on the defensive.

In the final core session we will wrestle with the concepts of suffering and compassion. We all have extensive experience with suffering as suffering is a part of the human condition. We will think about how people cope with their suffering, examine productive and unproductive coping mechanisms and think about compassion as the appropriate spiritual response to suffering.

Now some of you who are really keen will notice I haven’t used the words “God”, “Jesus”, “Christian”, “Bible” or any number of other code words that we would expect from a Christian leader. No I haven’t slipped off the narrow way that Jesus speaks of, nor am I seeking to water down the Gospel. What this course is about is learning how to perceive the spirituality of every person, to connect with it and to open doors for spiritual dialogue.

The course will be offered on the five Tuesday evenings in October from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. If you have an interest in enrolling, please give me a call at 204-346-5166 or email me at lhirst@southernhealth.ca. I’m looking forward to a profitable learning experience and I hoe some of you will join me.