Most hospitals in Bruce and Grey counties are altering or eliminating chaplain services.
South Bruce Grey Health Centre has decided to cancel agreements with the Grey Bruce Spiritual Care Council, which would remove chaplains and spiritual services from its healthcare facilities in Kincardine, Walkerton, Chesley and Durham.
Reverend Doctor Will Basson, who is the minister at the Durham Presbyterian Church, was under contract with SBGHC until he was informed that he would not be working in the hospitals in Walkerton, Kincardine, or Chesley unless contacted by a patient or their family.
Basson says that removing spiritual care from hospitals can be a huge loss.
“The work we do is work of caring, work of understanding, it’s a work of unconditional love,” says Basson. “It’s a work of going to find a patient who is in dire need in the hospital [who] really needs support. We’re human beings, and that’s body, mind, and spirit. So there’s the spiritual side of being a human being, and I’m really concerned about that. Who’s taking care of that? No one’s there, no one’s put in the position to be available to help those that have that spiritual care need.”
Meanwhile, Brightshores Health System is making its own changes to spiritual care.
In a statement to Bayshore News, Brightshores Health System COO Rebecca Cummings says although they appreciate the work over the years from their spiritual care experts, they’re changing the structure of the spiritual care program.
According to the release, Brighshores is moving spiritual care to part of their allied health programs.
Rather than having an ongoing agreement with the Grey Bruce Spiritual Care Council, Brightshores is hiring in-house, qualified staff. The organization says that it’s currently searching for staff to fill the role.
Brightshores says that a major change to the current spiritual care structure means that rather than have chaplains relying on money raised through the hospital foundation to be paid, now the position would instead be part of the annual operating budget.
Local hospitals will allow patients and their families to call their own religious and spiritual leaders, as was the case 30 years ago, according to Basson. He also says that that approach assumes religious care and spiritual care are the same thing.
“There’s a distinct difference between religious care and spiritual care. You go to church, you have your pastor [who] provides you with the religious care and helps you with religious questions of life and goes through those,” explains Basson. “Spiritual care is someone that’s in a situation, namely in a hospital bed, who really needs someone to be there for them, to help them, to carry them through times of spiritual discernment and just [to provide] spiritual support.”
To be a hospital chaplain also requires additional training aside from religious or spiritual teachings. Basson is a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused on Pastoral Counseling and Specialized Ministries from NWU Potchefstroom (South Africa).
“Many times when you visit a patient, you find [their] family present, and the spiritual care that we provide also extends to family [who are] also deeply affected by what’s going on with their loved one in hospital.”
He says that it also can extend to helping hospital staff.
“I can tell you personally, with the closure of Durham Hospital, the staff was deeply upset. And it was good for me to be there and support them in whatever way we can, just to be that supporting presence.”
Basson says that in his experience with the shift away from spiritual care, when he had gone to work at both Walkerton and Chesley hospitals he was told at the end of his last day there, that his services would no longer be required.
He says that it’s a similar experience for the members of the Grey Bruce Spiritual Care Council. The Council had an agreement with local hospitals.
Basson also says that with chaplains and spiritual services being removed from local hospitals, it puts the onus back on patients and their families.
“I can tell you, that more than 50% of the patients I visit would say something to the effect of ‘No, I haven’t been to church in many years’, or ‘I don’t have a good relationship with my pastor’, or ‘I don’t know my pastor too well, but please pray for me, please be there for me, please support me’, and that’s gone now.”
