Le Bonheur Children's Hospital

Chaplains

What is spiritual care?

Spiritual Care at Le Bonheur serves as a bridge that renews the relationship between medicine and spirituality in a health care setting.  Our scope of caring includes attention to the whole individual, including mind, body and spirit.  At Le Bonheur we strive to provide meaning and find value to life’s journey to all who enter our doors – patients, family members, visitors, hospital associates, staff, and physicians

We are an integral part of the health care team - working along side physicians, nurses, social workers and other staff. All of us work together to help you and your child while you are in the hospital.

Our dedicated staff of chaplains with specialized training in hospital ministry provides our pastoral care. We are committed to providing spiritual care to persons of all faiths. We will also make arrangements to accommodate your special needs and requests for specialized ministries by calling a minister of like faith, a Catholic priest, Jewish rabbi, or Muslim imam. We visit patients and families to bring God's Presence and Spirit into the midst of difficult and uncertain times. We are available for you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Patient and Family Centered Care

We seek to create a children’s health care campus which promotes and enhances patient- and family-centered care in the area of dignity and respect with each chaplain contact.  We seek to ensure that the spiritual and emotional care of the patient/family is as high a priority as the medical care they receive while in our hospital—improving information sharing and collaboration between all stakeholders.  We seek to encourage family participation in the “plan of care,” setting a new benchmark for patient and family-centered care within the MLH system and greater Memphis and Shelby County Community.

How does Spiritual Care work?

  • Professional Chaplains serve beside physicians, nurses, social workers and other Associates as an integral part of our patient and family-centered health care team
  • Professional Chaplains, specially trained in hospital ministry, are available to listen to concerns and feelings, pray with you, read from Scriptures and administer the Sacraments
  • Professional Chaplains journey in God’s presence with patients, families and Associates, serving as a resource for dealing with difficult situations
  • Professional Chaplains provide care to patients and families using spiritual screenings and assessments

What are the 5 Elements of Spiritual Assessment?

Awareness of patient’s spiritual orientation and needs facilitates better patient care and is often an important element in the patient’s well-being and clinical progress. Supporting patient’s spirituality can promote health, decrease depression and anxiety, and provide coping resources for dealing with significant illness issues. 

When a Professional Chaplain visits with a recipient of pastoral care, most often a spiritual assessment is used as a tool to gauge how a Chaplain can benefit the person.  This assessment includes areas of observance, such as:

  • Connection: provide a sense of meaningful relationships for patients/families to their most intimate beliefs and practices – promoting partnership in healing
  • Coherence: integrate overwhelmingly negative and stressful experiences into the patient and family’s world-view – helping provide a sense that life makes sense
  • Agency: retain the power to act and make relevant choices
  • Hope: draw individuals toward life, creating a feeling so vivid it can guide humans almost as a “memory of the future” – the evidence of things not yet see.
  • Blessing: increase one’s own awareness and understanding of different cultures and faith practices, revealing a web of life flowing across generations

When should a chaplain be called?

  • The family desires spiritual support in a difficult time.
  • The family requests prayer, sacraments, ritual or devotional materials.
  • The family wants to include a “faith perspective” on their care in their decision making.
  • When you notice that Faith or spiritual talk is the primary source of comfort, strength and community for the patient and family.
  • When you notice signs of “spiritual distress” – phrases like “why is this happening to us?”-“Why Isn’t God listening to my prayers?”-“I feel like I am being punished.”
  • When the Interdisciplinary team needs insight on a specific faith tradition and its relevance to the patient’s care.
  • When the patient or family voices religious or spiritual objections to the plan of care provided by physicians.
  • When the Family needs special religious practice accommodations for spiritual or religious observance.

What are some elements of Spiritual Care Team Ministry?

  • Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Associate Education
  • Ethics Consultations
  • Palliative Care Collaborations
  • Group and Individual Support Sessions/Debriefings for patient/families and Associates – Grief Management Education
  • “Chaplain, Take Me Away” – Associate Stress Breaks
  • Chapel Services every Thursday 11:30 am/ Sunday 2 pm
  • Catholic Communion every Thursday 12 noon – lay ministers patient/family support
  • Special Services and Observations (Celebration of Life, Memorial Service, Day of Sharing, Veterans Day )
  • Family Partner Council Liaison
  • Faith/Religious Handbook
  • Bereavement Committee
  • Heritage and Cultural Committee

Spiritual Care Contact Info:

  • Main Number: 901.287.5277
  • Alternative Number: 901.287.6024
  • On Call Pager (Mon-Thurs): 901.418.4022
  • On Call Pager (Fri-Sun): 901.418.4309

Rev. Corey D. Johnson, M.A.R., M. Div., B.C.C., Pediatric Certified Chaplain
Director of Spiritual Care, JohnsC@methodisthealth.org

Rev. Ann Phillips, M. Ed., M. Div., Pediatric Certified Chaplain
Staff Chaplain, PhilliAn@methodisthealth.org

Rev. Kobena Charm, M. Div.,
Staff Chaplain, CharmK@methodisthealth.org

Rev. Richard Savage, MRE,
Chaplain Intern, SavageR@methodisthealth.org