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Health Care Chaplaincy in Denmark
Sysam is an organisation of about 80 hospital chaplains, many of
them women, in Denmark working in different Hospitals smaller and bigger
all over the country. We work in ordinary hospitals for medical care, or
in psychiatric hospitals or in Hospices ( or dying people). Some chaplains
work 100%, others 75%, 50% or even 25% often combined with work for the
Lutheran church, and both hospital and ordinary pastors are engaged by the
so called "Danish Lutheran church", which is part of the state of Denmark.
Our organisation Sysam is a part of the Danish organisation for chaplains
and pastors called Præsteforeningen=The priests organisation.
Sysam has a committee with 4 members (and two substitutes), and one is
chosen as a leader. At the moment this is Henning Nabe-Nielsen. The
committee is chosen every second year, and there is an annual general
meeting taking place where everybody is invited to join. The aim of the
organisation is to take care of the interests of the hospital chaplains
and to be a forum for issues that can inspire the daily life of chaplains.
Anne Mette Berg
[December 2006]
Helle Møller Jensen
Age 44, pastor in the Danske Folkekirke Lutheran
state church for 16 years and 11 years experience as a chaplain in two
Copenhagen based hospitals.
Present job: Chaplain at Bispebjerg Hospital (60%), and parish pastor at
Broenshoej Church (40%). Bispebjerg hospital is a research hospital and
specialises in palliative care.
Research : have recently defended my PhD. dissertation on “Pastoral care
between Theory and Praxis, at study into Kierkegaard’s use of body and
movement metaphors”. The aim of the PhD was to find a way of communicating
as free from psychological concepts as possible and to take into
consideration that a growing number of people from secular
non-confessional backgrounds seek pastoral care.
Danish profile
In Denmark 95% of hospital chaplains are attached to a parish, this allows
for a diversity in work assignments, but poses quite a number of
administrative problems. These problems are unfortunately, but necessarily
the prime focus of the work that is done in SYSAM (The association of
hospital chaplains in Denmark). I think that most agree that this is a
shame since the secular university faculties are displaying a much greater
interest in working together with theologians and we as an association
should devote more time to interacting with other professionals in the
health sector. At the moment there is a major research area at Copenhagen
University on “Religion and Health” and pastoral care education mixing
psychology and theology, seems to be on the way
[May
2006]
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