Pastoral Visitors Learn to Listen for Spiritual Needs

"Just don't say something – sit there!" This was one of the most useful lessons learned by the graduates of a pastoral visitor training course offered by Pen Bay Healthcare earlier this year.

The purpose of this program is to prepare volunteers to provide pastoral care and companionship to individuals and those close to them who are experiencing the effects of illness, surgery, incapacitation, loss of independence, death and bereavement.

The most recent graduates are Sarah Reynolds, Beryl Charlton, Debbi Hitchings, Betsy Johnson and Deb Haviland. They (with the exception of Haviland, who was unable to attend) gathered with Rev. Laura Edwards, Pastoral Care Coordinator at PBMC, and the more seasoned pastoral care volunteers on Tuesday, May 27, to talk about the training and their experiences in the field.

"It's really about active and reflective listening," said Laura Edwards. "It's very seldom, in the healthcare system, that people have the benefit of a listening presence, with no strings attached." The volunteers learned to heed that uncomfortable feeling of "not knowing what to say" – because sometimes the right response turns out to be silence.

"For most of one visit I was really unsure about what to do," said Sarah Reynolds, who lives in Union and volunteers at the hospital. "The lady I was visiting didn't appear to take in what I was saying – I wasn't sure if she was very hard of hearing or didn't understand. I noticed that she was fidgeting a little, so I just held her hand and she started stroking mine. At the end of the visit, she lifted my hand and kissed it."

Although all of the volunteers attend local churches, they do not represent any particular denomination when they visit patients and they strive to be respectful of the patients' beliefs.

"Some patients don't believe in God, and others are angry at God," said Edwards. "We don't preach to them. We're there to listen and be a comfort in any way we can."

When appropriate, pastoral visitors pray with patients about their concerns and hopes, or they sometimes ask, "What would you like to pray for?"

Trained pastoral volunteers abide by the HIPPA privacy act and are therefore legally allowed to know where patients are being treated or transferred, which gives them the ability to provide continuity of spiritual care as patients journey through the healthcare system. The volunteers can also be a blessing to the medical staff, who often lament that they don't always have time to sit with patients who are depressed or lonely.

The pastoral training course consists of 10 two-hour classes plus supervised weekly visits with patients at Penobscot Bay Medical Center, Quarry Hill and the Knox Center for Long Term Care. Edwards gives the course, but she has invited many others to speak to the group, among them Rev. Dr. Betsey Mauro from the Congregational Church in Rockland; Susan Drolet and Kathleen Leach, counselors from PARC (Psychiatric and Addiction Recovery Center) at PBMC; Eileen Hawkins from the PBMC Stroke Center; Suzanne Miller from Quarry Hill, who spoke about stress and self-care; and Rev. Audrey Philcox, who now resides at Windward Gardens and who talked about issues of the elderly in nursing homes. The textbook for the course is "The Lay Pastoral Worker's Hospital Handbook," by Neville Kirkwood.

Scholarships are available to cover the $100 tuition for the course. Anyone interested in more information should contact Laura Edwards at 596-8546 or ledwards@penbayhealthcare.org.