Ministry to patients and family members includes the following:
-Support for spiritual needs.
-Inform patient and family of available pastoral care services and how to access them.
-Assist patient and family in identifying spiritual needs.
-Provide education for use of spiritual resources for coping, prevention and recovery from illness.
-Assist patients in issues of loss resulting from illness.
-Assist patients throughout the grief process.
-Provide or arrange for liturgical services, rituals, and prayers.
-Make referral to interdisciplinary and community services (i.e. social services, community resources, congregational, parish services).
Alexian Brothers Medical Center -a chaplain is available Monday through Friday and may be contacted at 847-437-5500 Ext. 4744 or by pager at 847-437-5500 and then press “0" for the operator.
St. Alexius Medical Center -to contact a chaplain please ask your nurse or dial 847-843-2000 and ask the operator for the available chaplain.
Definition of Terms for Pastoral Care
Chaplain
-Provide spiritual care and pastoral support within the context of the individual's spiritual and/or religious beliefs, understandings and practices.
-Attempts to illuminate the patient's understanding and relationship to self, God or higher being and others.
-Provides a holistic approach in addressing the interconnected components of body, mind, spirit and emotions in order to develop an understanding of needs and issues.
Sacraments
-Interfaith religion, including non-Christian, use symbols as sacraments to help express meaning and to provide religious experience. The Roman Catholic faith places high importance on seven sacraments:
1) Sharing of the Eucharist
2) Baptism
3) Marriage
4) Ordination
5) Sacrament of the Sick
6) Reconciliation
7) Confirmation
Other religious traditions recognize a different number of sacraments and may place lesser emphasis on some sacraments. The ritual of prayer may be of high importance.
Holism
-Holism is an interdisciplinary and encompassing approach to health care in which the patient is actively involved in his or her own health planning.
-Holism emphasizes treating the whole person physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Spirituality
Spirituality in health care is viewed as an aspect of the holistic understanding of person.
Some general themes in spirituality would include:
-Spirituality is a broader concept than religion.
-Spirituality involves a personal quest for meaning and purpose in life.
-Spirituality relates to the inner sense of the person.
-Spirituality is a sense of harmonious inter-connectedness with self, others, nature and Ultimate Other.
-Spirituality is the integrating factor of the human person.