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  Health Care Chaplaincy in Slovakia

Mgr. Miriam Prasilova
Evangelic Diaconia of Evangelic (Lutheran) Church of Augsburg Confession in Slovakia

There is a part time position of hospital chaplain funded by Evangelic Diaconia in The National Oncology Institute in the capital city Bratislava. There is a close cooperation with the psychologist in this hospital and the main pastoral interest is in the palliative care unit. As the hospital chaplain I give lectures from time to time to medical and theology students, write articles about this ministry and I promote the idea of hospital chaplaincy at seminars for hospital staff and hospice and palliative careconferences. I also work as a coordinator of volunteers and their pastor in the team with psychologist, physician and supervisor in the Oncology institute of St. Elisabeth. The volunteers are selected and educated and they are able to provide psycho-social support as well as spiritual help as lay persons and they function independently and meet for supervision once a month.

In both the oncology hospital and other hospitals the hospital chaplaincy is still the responsibility of pastoral care of the churches. There is no professional association for hospital chaplains. Each church congregation has the responsibility for the pastoral care for its own people in the hospital. The local churches offer also their spiritual and pastoral care for the hospitals and other social institutions in their area.

Chaplaincy in Roman catholic Church
There are about thirty priests in the biggest Roman Catholic Church who were assigned for the pastoral care in hospitals. Bishop Secka who is responsible for “pastoral care in health care system” in the Roman Catholic Church from the eastern part of Slovakia meets these priests twice a year and takes care ofr their formation. As he said the spiritual care in the hospitals is mainly sacramental. There are masses and providing the sacraments as required. The pastoral support, talks and visits take place in the patient’s room or many times in the corridors, in the waiting rooms, cafeterias as there is no special place for privacy with the patient.
There is one special aspect that is developed only in majority Roman Catholic church and that is pastoral care and the spiritual formation of the nurses and medical doctors. There are spiritual exercises offered to them periodically by the hospital chaplain.
There are also ethical meetings of physicians, nurses and priests working in the hospital in five regions so far. As Bishop Secka mentions, the aim is not only pastoral care for patients, but also spiritual care for relatives, care for social surrounding, the interest in rights, changes in the health care system and many ethical problems.

Chaplaincy in Lutheran Church
In the second largest church in Slovakia - The Lutheran church, is the hospital chaplaincy covered by Evangelic (Lutheran) Diaconia. After some changes and the departure of one of the pioneers in this field in 2007, training in CPE of pastors or priests is not recognised yet. As the hospitals have many other economic problems, they don't pay attention to spiritual care and the standards of the spiritual care in healthcare.

The Association of hospice and palliative care
There ihas been an Association of hospice and palliative care in Slovakia since 1989. The Association works in the areas to:

The association does a lot of work with standards for the providers of hospice and palliative care. The representatives of the association meet with those who provide pastoral care in the hospital at the conferences. We share ideas and visions.

Issues for the future
I see as an issue the need for making networks of all those who provide pastoral and spiritual care in the hospitals and share experiences, meet at seminars or conferences. The important thing is to encourage the discussion between church (or Evangelic Diaconia) and the hospital or the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Slovakia and The Ministry of Health for incorporating spiritual care in the treatment and the services in the hospitals.
From the notes of Roman Catholic Bishop Secka: "Celebrating the Day of the sick helps theunderstanding of the importance of pastoral care in the health care system. The hospital chaplaincy can not be only sacramental. We need to help broaden the understanding of this pastoral ministry in the hospital among priests and believers and emphasize the need for accompanying ill people. The sick person cannot stay alone. The important thing is to pay attention to families of patients and to motivate volunteers. It would be good to give information from the hospital chaplain to the local pastor about the discharged patient. There is the plan in the Roman Catholic. Church for further education and specialization in hospital chaplaincy. It is necessary to work more ecumenically and to motivate ourselves for good cooperation."

[September 2010]

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