Health and Healing

A Growing Connection:
A Pastoral Care Volunteer Program and the Community

Answering a Calling
" I feel I have fine-tuned what God wants me to do in this life," said Ruth Lashley, a pastoral care volunteer at Chaplaincy partner Brookdale University Hospital and
Medical Center. A lay pastor at Miracle Temple Ministries Pentecostal Church and a former hospital lab technician, Ruth uses her spiritual and professional background in volunteer pastoral visits with patients.

Like many of Brookdale’s pastoral care volunteers, Ruth learned about the program through her church, which had responded to an outreach from the Rev. Carlos de la
Pena, director of pastoral care at Brookdale. "I reached out to the local houses of worship, and they sent me their best, most committed people," he said. "Volunteers provide a valuable extension of the pastoral care servics offered by the hospital. Many of them visit patients on nights and weekends, when I’m not here." He reports that his cadre of more than 30 volunteers makes an average of 2000 patient visits every month. "But these numbers can’t accurately measure the extremely positive effect these trained volunteers have on our patients," he said.

A Strong Foundation
Chaplain de la P en~a was pleased to find a volunteer program already in place when he arrived at Brookdale in May of last year. HCC’s Chaplain Michael Moran, Brookdale’s former director of pastoral care and education, created the program as a service to the community and the patients. "I saw a need to bring the hospital closer to the community," said Chaplain Moran. "And I knew that these volunteers would learn skills in empathy and listening that they would take back to their congregations." Chaplain Moran recently brought his expertise in creating pastoral care volunteer programs to the EPIC conference in Toronto, where he taught a workshop to over 100 chaplains from hospitals across North America. (Click here to see story). "I’m very pleased the program at Brookdale is doing so well," he said.

A Training Program that Works
Pastoral care volunteers at Brookdale complete an intense 25 hours of training before they begin their work with patients, including 15 hours of classroom time and 10 hours of supervised pastoral care visits with Chaplain de la Pena. A psychologist, a patient advocate, and a nutritionist are among the staff that join him in the classroom training.
" I brought in a nutritionist because I want the volunteers to learn how to stay healthy—physically and otherwise," he said. “The healthier they are, the better equipped they are to work with patients." After training, volunteers also lead staff prayer groups and worship services at Brookdale.

" Without the training and Pastor de la Pena’s supervision , I couldn’t do what I’m doing here," said volunteer Margo Fields. "Once I was called to go with a family to the morgue to view their deceased loved one," she recalled. "It was only because of our training that I felt competent to be with them at that difficult time. We learn to be present for patients who are sad, frustrated, even angry. "

Carmen Velazquez, a Roman Catholic Eucharistic minister and Brookdale pastoral volunteer for five years, visits patients every weekday from nine to five. "Many patients have no family and need someone to talk to," she said. "And there are some who will tell a volunteer things that they can’t tell their family."

"There are so many people out there with a lot of compassion," said the Rev. de la Pena. "This program allows them to help make a difference in a way that is meaningful for them."