Spiritual Services
Spiritual Services at Froedtert Health Community Memorial Hospital is a collaboration effort 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 Hospital Chaplains
The hospital chaplains are 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. Special attention is given to spiritual concerns in hopes of assisting the patient to be at peace or, at best, to begin to find resolution to their concerns.
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.
Role in Palliative Care
The hospital chaplains interact with the palliative care nurses. Palliative Care is value-based, compassionate care when a person has a life limiting disease. It is focused on providing patients with relief from his or her symptoms, pain and stress—whatever the diagnosis. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.
Spiritual Services
The Spiritual Services at Community Memorial Hospital offers the following services:
- A chapel located on the main floor of the hospital near the lobby, open 24 hours daily for quiet meditation and prayer.
- "Care Notes" pamphlets offering comfort and spiritual support for many health-related situations.
- A Hospital Chaplain or designee available 24 hours for emergencies.
- Contacting a patient's religious organization with permission of patient/family.
- Twice a year memorial services for families and friends of patients who have experienced an early pregnancy loss less than 20 weeks.
- Memorial Service offered once a year for families, friends and caregivers of patients who have died at Community Memorial in conjunction with Menomonee Falls ecumenical members of LARCUM.
Spiritual Services 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.
Caring Volunteers
A number of volunteer support our Spiritual Services staff:
- Friendly Visitors: Volunteers who visit patients to clarify whether the patient has a religious/spiritual community they belong to and would like the church contacted.
- Catholic Communion Minister: Catholic Communion is distributed on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.