Hospice Chaplains, Spiritual Counselors: Video Interview 6:24

Hospice chaplains and spiritual counselors are available for terminally ill patients and their families as another optional choice to promote quality of life. In recent years, more patients are choosing this service, which has become more flexible in meeting diverse needs, including the needs of those who say they are spiritual but not religious. Trained chaplains bring additional compassion, comfort, and understanding to the death journey, a time when many focus on the meaning of life, their purpose, and general concerns about closure. Of course, patients can still choose counseling from their own personal pastors, priests, and spiritual leaders.

In additional to spiritual counseling, hospice chaplains can also officiate at funerals and memorial services. One of my hospice patients had no family support providing for an end-of-life ritual. The hospice chaplain held a memorial service at the nursing home that included a few nursing home residents, one relative, a friend, and myself. The twelve of us sat in a circle while the chaplain read a spiritual verse. This was followed by each of us commenting on our personal relationship with the deceased. Our death ritual concluded on the front lawn with our singing a spiritual song and the releasing of balloons that the chaplain had brought.

In this video from Community Home Care and Hospice, a hospice chaplain explains what he does, the rewards he receives, and answers many questions people may have regarding his patient-driven spiritual care. He honors one of his patients with special recognition you won’t want to miss.

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback and e-book editions in America and other countries at online and offline booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Chaplains Provide Spiritual Health (Hospice-Palliative Research, Music Video 2:12)

We often hear about end-of life care with emphasis on the roles of doctors and nurses. Spirituality of patients may be overshadowed sometimes by the more visible efforts of providing quality of life at physical levels. But hospice-palliative care chaplains also make positive differences in the healthcare status of many patients by providing a comforting presence during a critical phase in life.

Duke University research documenting the relationships between the receipt of less spiritual care than desired and patient outcomes was done with 150 patients with advanced cancer.  The vast majority of them (91%) indicated they had spiritual needs. Most desired and received spiritual care from their healthcare providers, religious community, and hospital chaplain. Unfortunately, a significant subset of patients didn’t receive the level of spiritual care they wanted. When this happened, patients were at risk of depression and reduced sense of spiritual meaning and peace. These unmet spiritual needs negatively impacted patients’ healthcare status.

A’Shellarian Anthony, chaplain at Delaware Hospice, provides weekly counsel and prayer with her patients. Part of a unique program there that includes specialists who sing, she also provides the healing powers of music:

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Hospice Chaplains: Who Wants Them? (Research, Video 1:11)

Being diagnosed as terminally ill can trigger many thoughts in a person’s mind. Considerations may include if or how their lives matter, what they can do to make their final journey more productive, what happens after death. For those who are inclined toward beliefs in religious or spiritual truths, the hospice chaplain is someone they may want to counsel them with answers.

What do patients expect to receive from hospice chaplain visitation? Who are the people who request this support? Why are these visits important to them? These are questions that the Department of Chaplain Services at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota researched with 4500 eligible medical and hospital patients in Minnesota, Arizona, and Florida. About one-third of the mostly male, married, over age 55 Protestants and Catholics responded from each site with these results:

1)   Nearly 70% of patients reported wanting chaplain visitation.

2)   Chaplains visited 43%.

3)   Indicating that visitation by a chaplain was important were 81% of patients.

4)   The strongest predictor of wanting chaplain visitation was denomination vs. no indicated religious affiliation.

5)   The most important reason for patients wanting chaplain visitation was that chaplains served as reminders of God's care and presence.

Being religiously affiliated is a very strong predictor of wanting chaplain visitation. In this video, Sig Jaeger, chaplain of Hospice Palm Beach County in Florida, and a patient share their mutually beneficial visitation experiences together:

Frances Shani Parker, Author

Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes is available in paperback at many booksellers and in e-book form at Amazon and Barnes and Noble booksellers.

Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog

Hospice Workers and Death Rituals

This post includes an excerpt from my book "Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes.” In a chapter titled “Death Sentences,” I relate the fascinating end-of-life journey of my patient named Lelia. The afterlife is referred to as the Other Side of Through. Because Lelia had very little family support, the hospice chaplain organized her death ritual, which concluded in this manner:

“Our humble circle stood in the front yard of a Detroit nursing home to perform our final death ritual for Lelia. People riding by in cars on a busy street observed a lively group of ecstatic mourners looking upward, enthusiastically singing “Going to Shout All Over God’s Heaven.” Passionate voices resonated like rockets. We released our buoyant balls of bliss floating in a hurry to get somewhere. I imagined Lelia looking on, bobbing her head to the gospel beat. She grinned her toothless rainbow smile that colored our hearts with joy from the Other Side of Through when we all yelled, “Bye, Lelia! Have yourself a good time!”

© Frances Shani Parker

I have been present at several death rituals of hospice patients. As a hospice volunteer in a nursing home, I don’t often see many of my patients’ relatives and friends until the ritual is held. The closure that takes place is often viewed as a final expression of care for relatives and friends of the deceased. However, research by the Orvis School of Nursing at the University of Nevada shows that hospice workers also benefit from such rituals. Not only do the rituals provide closure and an outlet for their grief, they also decrease the risk of burnout and compassion fatigue that hospice workers can experience.

Frances Shani Parker, Author
"Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes”
“Hospice and Nursing Homes Blog”