Organizational Spiritual Care: Providing Spiritual Support for Organizations

Mary Heintzkill, Director of Spiritual Care, Borgess Health Laura Richter, Director of Workplace Spirituality and Mission Integration, Ascension Health

April 10, 2013

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Objectives

• Participants will explore organizational structure and be able to identify issues that may arise which require spiritual support (including a basic understanding of the environment and culture of organizations).

• Participants will recognize what it means to be a spiritual care leader for an organization.

• Participants will be able to articulate the chaplain’s role in addressing the organization’s spiritual needs and address competencies and skills needed to fulfill this role.

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Organizational Structure

• Spiritual Care not only supports individual spiritual needs, but also those of the institution.

• Spiritual Care connects with the strategy at the local level as well as supporting system goals related to spirituality.

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We Must Create a Culture that Supports Our Strategic Direction

Model Community of Mission-Centered, Healthy Associates

Integrated Alliance Network of Values-Compatible Partners

Knowledge on Demand as a Fully Connected Ministry

Presence as Needed at Full Potential

Healthcare That Leaves No One Behind

Healthcare That Is Safe

Healthcare That Works

Model Community of Mission-Centered, Healthy Associates

Integrated Alliance Network of Values-Compatible Partners

Knowledge on Demand as a Fully Connected Ministry

Presence as Needed at Full Potential

Healthcare That Leaves No One BehindHealthcare That Leaves No One Behind

Healthcare That Is SafeHealthcare That Is Safe

Healthcare That WorksHealthcare That Works

Mission

Vision

Values

Spiritual

Care

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Model Community

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Healthcare that Works:Attributes of Patient Experience

Clinical Reputation and Quality

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REALM 3Emotional

and Spiritual Support

REALM 2Coordinated, Efficient Processes

REALM 1Safe, Effective Evidence-based Care

Communication and Empowerment

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Care Responsiveness

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Administrative Efficiency

Comfortable, Convenient

Environment

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2Compassionate, Respectful Care

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This is a different way of understanding ourselves

• Chaplains can be trainers for any body of work that is related to compassionate care, listening or person centered care.

• Chaplains can empower others to meet spiritual needs.

• Chaplains work cannot be disconnected from the overall mission and strategy

• Chaplains are integral to the health of the organization.

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Spiritual Care Touches Many Facets of Our Ministry

Examples of places where chaplains can provide spiritual support for the organization

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Associate Support

• Individual cases • Organizational Restructurings• Organizational loss

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Moving beyond the acute care setting

• No longer just providing care within 4 walls of the hospital

• Ambulatory Care • Nursing Homes • Home visits

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Interdisciplinary Teams

• Sharing insight about patients and their families

• Goal setting • Collaborating • Helping to communicate and ease tension

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Care of the soul of the organization

• Tea for the Soul• Blessings of Hands • Anointing Masses for World Day of the

Sick • Commitment Ceremonies and

Commissionings• Crisis Debriefings

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Care of the Community

• Person Centered Care Across the Continuum

• Empower others locally to provide pastoral support

• Examples

What does it mean to be a spiritual care leader for an organization?

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Spiritlinking

“ The key to addressing the challenges that face those who are, or will become excellent leaders is spiritlinking – the deliberate and untiring act of working through resistance to organizational transformation by building the circle of friends, fostering networks of human compassion and interweaving teams of relationships through which new ideas are born and new ways of responding to the mission take form and find expression.”

- Donna Markham

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Challenges for Spiritlinking

• Bridge Disunity • Promote Community • Deepen sense of meaning • Heighten creativity

• Across chasms of differences

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Framework for Fostering a Spirituality of Work

“In a spiritually centered workplace, people have a greater potential to become whole. They have a deeper connection with the meaning of what they do. From that experience comes vital energy, real commitment, creativity and a generosity of spirit in contributing to our mission.

In fostering spirituality, the workplace grows as a true community of mutual care and service and organizational process is infused with depth and reflective process. In this context there is potential for both individual and organizational transformation.”

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The Chaplains Role in Addressing the Organization’s Spiritual Needs – Needed Skills and Competencies

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Necessary Competencies

• Promote the integration of Pastoral/Spiritual Care into the life and service of the institution in which it resides (305.1)

• Demonstrate the ability to build peer relationships for the purpose of collaboration and active participation in the creation and maintenance of a healthy work environment. (305.3)

• Articulate an understanding of institutional culture and systems, and systemic relationships (305.3)

• Demonstrate skill in facilitating decision-making based on…networking and understanding of systems thinking. (305.41)

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Skills

• Need to be curious/ask questions • Come without an agenda – be open to

how situation unfolds • Be non-judgmental • Appreciate both sides of an issue

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Questions

In Pastoral/Spiritual Care, we listen for the subtext. We assume there is more going on than is being said, so we stay attuned for the subplot, for the things that are too

painful to be named or spoken. Emotional communication or emotional

grammar is always going on alongside the verbal.

Jeanne Stevenson-MoessnerA Primer in Pastoral Care