What is Spiritual Care?
Spiritual Care (formerly known as Chaplaincy, or Pastoral Care) is a person-centred, holistic approach to care that complements the care offered by other helping disciplines while paying particular attention to spiritual care. The focus of spiritual care is upon the healing, guiding, supporting, reconciling, nurturing, liberating, and empowering of people in whatever situation they find themselves*.
*Bruce Rumbold, La Trobe University School of Public Health
Services Offered
Western Health’s Spiritual Care staff offer emotional and spiritual support to Western Health’s patients, families, and staff, during times of change and challenge.
Trained Spiritual Care practitioners work with the knowledge that human beings need to have their pain witnessed, and to be heard, understood, and affirmed, helping patients to find meaning, understand the place of hope, and explore ways in which they might come to a place of self-reconciliation.
Spiritual Care is available to all patients, relatives, and hospital staff across Western Health, Monday – Friday. This support is available to all, and is carefully tailored towards the individual’s own needs, beliefs and world view.
Prayer & Reflection Rooms
The Prayer and Reflection Rooms are located adjacent to the Spiritual Care offices at Footscray and Sunshine Hospitals, and open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. They are shared places of peace, quiet, prayer, reflection and meditation, and all are welcome.
Sacred texts, including the Qur'ân and Bible, and prayer mats are also kept in the Prayer and Reflection Rooms, and are available for patient, visitor and staff use.
Please leave all resources in the Prayer and Reflection Rooms so that others may also use them.
Workforce
The Spiritual Care department works with Spiritual Health Association (Victoria) and Spiritual Care Australia in developing and maintaining professional standards using current best practice, as well as advocacy for spiritual care in healthcare.
Members of the Spiritual Care team have qualifications is Theology, Counselling, and/or other psycho-social fields, such as Psychology, or Social Work. We share a commitment to providing high quality spiritual care to people from all walks of life.
We also maintain collegial relationships with external faith organisations, such as the Islamic Council of Victoria, the Buddhist Council of Victoria and various partner parishes, to ensure that when specific faith/ritual/cultural needs that are beyond the Spiritual Care team’s scope of practice, we can make the appropriate connections.
Contact Us
If you would like to contact the Spiritual Care team during your stay, you can:
Phone
Ask a nurse, ward clerk or reception staff at the hospital's front desks to page a Spiritual Care team member.
Visit a Spiritual Care offices which are adjacent to the Prayer & Reflection Rooms at Sunshine and Footscray Hospitals.
