Services
Health Ministry
Pastoral Care at Community Memorial Hospital is the collaboration with other caregivers in the hospital and community to provide physical, emotional and spiritual strength to help patients and families during their time in the hospital.
The program is designed to recognize and respect the struggle of every person, to make sense or to journey with patients as they find meaning in their suffering, their living, their dying and their faith in their God. The program also recognizes that spirituality is more than prayers. It is an awareness of relationships, an appreciation of presence and purpose that includes a sense of meaning. Spirituality can be seen and dealt with in many different ways.
The Health Ministry at Community Memorial offers the following services:
- A Hospital Chaplain, or a Volunteer Chaplain available 24 hours for emergencies.
- A chapel located on the main floor of the hospital near the lobby, open 24 hours daily for quiet meditation and prayer.
- Contacting a patient's religious organization.
- Church services that are taped at local churches are rebroadcast within the hospital every Sunday between 10 a.m. and noon.
- Catholic Communion distributed on Sundays and Thursdays. A priest is also available in emergencies.
- A Memorial Service offered four times per year for families, friends and caregivers of patients who have died at the hospital or patients who have contact with the Cancer Care Center.
- "Care Notes" pamphlets offering comfort and spiritual support for many health-related situations.
- Advanced Care Planning, especially if the patient is seriously ill or has a life limiting illness, is very important. The Hospital Chaplain can help patients and families understand this process and how to get the best information in a written document.
The Hospital Chaplain
The hospital chaplain is trained to interact with people of any faith. The chaplain strives to allow the individual's own faith and spiritual beliefs to be discovered and used.
The chaplain is responsible for bereavement care. A bereavement newsletter is sent to all families who have a loved one die in the hospital for a year after the death. The Chaplain is also trained in RTS Bereavement Care, which deals with miscarriages, stillbirths and other losses.
The hospital chaplain is also a member of the Palliative Care Team. Palliative Care is when a person has a life limiting disease and needs special assistance to make plans to fully live out the rest of their life.
Caring Volunteers
A number of volunteer positions round out the Health Ministry staff:
- Volunteer Chaplains: Local clergy and trained lay people who are available for emergencies when the hospital chaplain is not available.
- Abiders: Volunteers who serve Community Memorial Hospital by providing comfort and support to those patients close to the end of their earthly life, especially when there are no available family or friends.
- Friendly Visitors: Volunteers who visit patients to clarify whether the patient has a religious community they belong to or would like the hospital volunteers to contact.
: 
