Fall Seminar Series Teaches HealthCare Chaplaincy Staff
About Key Aspects of Palliative Care

This fall HealthCare Chaplaincy is conducting an outstanding thirteen-session educational seminar series to educate all staff on key components of palliative care. Leading the seminar are nationally recognized speakers and qualified HealthCare Chaplaincy faculty.

Palliative care helps people to live well and live fully. It reduces suffering. It matches treatments to a person’s wishes and values.

The first session’s speaker was Nessa Coyle, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, a nurse practitioner at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer center with special training in the care of symptomatic advanced cancer patients and their families, and in end-of-life care. She spoke about the philosophy of palliative care.

Dr. Coyle said that health care chaplains are engaged in sacred work at an extraordinary time in a person’s life.

She explained that palliative care shifts the focus from being the person with CANCER to the PERSON with cancer.

The second session presented an overview of research findings on palliative care, presented by Kevin Flannelly, Ph.D., Associate Director of Research, Spears Research Institute at HealthCare Chaplaincy, and Nava Silton, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral Templeton Fellow at HealthCare Chaplaincy and now a Visiting Professor at Marymount Manhattan College.

The third session topic was legal issues in chaplaincy and palliative care presented by Bob Wolf, HealthCare Chaplaincy’s senior vice president for development and innovation. An expert in geriatrics, Bob has been the senior advisor to the SC Group, one of the country’s most important philanthropic foundations in the field of geriatrics, and most recently has served as director of special projects at AARP Foundation.

Bob said that while grown children of older parents are often reluctant to ask parents their wishes and values in the event mom or dad become seriously ill prior to that happening, parents often would welcome that conversation. “Who better suited than a chaplain to ask, ‘Have you had the talk with your parents?’ and to know what questions to ask,” he said.

Bob’s presentation covered a broad range of legal issues, including government benefits, power of attorney, advance directives, housing, consumer credit, immigration, insurance disputes, wills, and employer accommodation.

He recommends as an excellent resource “Legal Guide for the Seriously Ill – Seven Key Steps to Get Your Affairs in Order” published by the American Bar Association on Law and Aging for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. You can download a copy from HealthCare Chaplaincy’s website {ClickThru9}.

Upcoming issues of HealthCare Chaplaincy Today will report on future sessions of this comprehensive seminar.

Taking our Message on the Road

The Rev. George Handzo, HealthCare Chaplaincy’s vice president for pastoral care leadership and practice, was the guest speaker at the September 15th Grand Rounds at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital.

The hospital serves 22 counties and a population of 400,000.

Rev. Handzo spoke on the role of spiritual care in health care.

“Spiritual care isn’t or shouldn’t be an add-on to health care,” Rev Handzo told the audience of hospital staff and other chaplains from the region. “It should be a valuable part of the regular health care component. Chaplains shouldn’t just be brought in at the end of a patient’s life but should be there at the very beginning of care, to offer support in any way possible.”

Physicians at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital are required to ask patients about their cultural or spiritual history and if they would like to see a chaplain during their hospital visit.

According to Larry Funk, the Spiritual Care Coordinator at Northern Michigan, the number of people requesting hospital chaplain visits has increased as more people become aware of the role of chaplains in the health care field.

Rev. Handzo’s visit affirmed the hospital’s approach and provided new knowledge. Mr. Funk said, “He emphasized the importance of whole person care inclusive of body, mind and spirit. His visit and presentation left us encouraged, refocused and energized.”

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