Pastoral care integral to healthcare
In public and military hospitals, prisons, and hospices, when push comes to shove, there are not many who will rebuff a visit from the friendly chaplain.
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These caring individuals provide spiritual nourishment by listening to all our fears and anxieties, a willing confidante giving us the opportunity to discuss existential questions in a non-threatening environment and someone offering general or faith-specific comfort.
A visit from one of them can often bring hope and unexpected healing.
I found this so for my dad during his final few weeks spent in a local hospice, as he initiated discussions with his family, the nursing staff and the chaplain about spirituality and life after death as he’d never done before.
He passed with newfound confidence and no fear.
As chaplaincy programs around the country are reviewing their practices in order to reach out to anyone who needs spiritual care, whatever their faith background or personal beliefs, they’re finding growing receptivity from patients for this loving service.
While the human connection is so important, there’s evidence that feeling a connection to the divine is what brings about true healing.
For example, as her mother’s guardian in later years, a woman faced a decision whether to give permission for doctors to amputate her mother’s leg.
Based on her past experience, this woman sought pastoral care from a proven source of inspiration, comfort, and healing – the Bible and Science and Health, a book that provides a key to unlocking the Bible’s meaning and explains the spiritual science behind our divinely derived nature and abilities.
But spiritual healing, in which the patient comes to understand his or her relationship to divine love, encompasses all other healing, and may one day be seen as primary, not secondary.
Sancy Nason
Tathra
Library roles changing
Thank you to the Magnet for an informative article on Thursday, October 22 regarding the changes that Bega Valley Shire Council has started to make to the Eden Library.
Late last year, an independent consultant conducted a review of all four shire libraries and made a series of recommendations.
One recommendation was to move away from traditional library assistant roles to customer service based roles in order to meet the changing needs of libraries in communities.
Bega Valley Shire Council has started to implement the recommendations in the consultant's report (the full report can be found on council's website) and recently advertised for a number of customer and information officer roles to undertake vacant positions within the library network.
The successful applicants, including staff in the Eden library, have a range of tertiary qualifications, coupled with extensive experience.
The role of libraries is changing and it's important that staff are able to undertake a range of functions in order to service our customers.
Staff no longer just loan out books, but design and deliver programs, provide assistance to customers who wish to engage with technology, and provide high quality customer service to those inquiring about council's facilities and services.
Bega Valley Shire Council library staff have the experience and qualifications to deliver the services people need.
Visitors to any of the shire libraries will be met with friendly, helpful and appropriately qualified staff to assist them.
Simon Schweitzer
Manager Community Culture and Information
Bega Valley Shire Council