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Ilsa Hampton
Creating Community Connections:
Pastoral Care in Community Aged Care[1]
In 2009, Baptcare, a large not-for-profit based in Melbourne, Australia, began piloting an approach to the delivery of pastoral care to older Australians living in the community who are on government funded support packages.[2] The purpose of the program is not only to provide individual pastoral support, but also to give opportunities for relationships to develop between local communities and Baptcare’s clients.
What Baptcare calls the chaplain may be labelled in other contexts as pastoral carer, pastoral care practitioner, or spiritual care practitioner. Baptcare chaplains respond to client need regardless of clients’ backgrounds. Pastoral care in Baptcare is understood to be “a person-centered, holistic approach to care that complements the care offered by other helping disciplines while paying particular attention to spiritual care.”[3]
Baptcare’s pastoral care program in regions with community aged care clients commenced in 2006. Long term relationships, largely via home visits, became a key characteristic of the program. We have received a large amount of anecdotal evidence that clients benefit from their relationships with the chaplains. The need for more systematic collection of client experiences and views on pastoral care are also being addressed as part of the trial.
In the original model for community aged care pastoral care, however, it was expected that the chaplains would not be the sole source of pastoral support for this client group. This is partly to do with limitations on resources, as well as sheer distances across the state of Victoria. In some instances, it can take up to four hours for the chaplain to reach a client in one of the bigger regions.
The revised model for community aged care pastoral care means making an offer as much as a request to local communities. It includes recruiting, training and supervising local volunteers. They will function as ‘pastoral visitors’ to clients, offering first level support to clients and referring back to the regional chaplain if required.
A training program was developed (with funding from the Healthcare Chaplaincy Council of Victoria Inc.) after consultation with a number of organisations already training pastoral care volunteers.[4] The program is theme based, allowing for a mixture of information, ideas, conversation and practice sessions to be spread across all topics. There is not a lot of written work, therefore enabling the widest group of competent carers into the program.
A significant aspect to the trial of this model is in the planned evaluation. By building in surveys and evaluations there is an opportunity to learn something not only about the new model, but the effectiveness of the pastoral care program generally.
It is expected that clients or their carers, in isolated areas in particular, will experience an increase in wellbeing as a result of their contact with the pastoral visitor and/or the Baptcare chaplain. It is also anticipated that the project will provide increased connections between clients/carers and their local community, and an increased capacity for local communities to respond pastorally to people who are ageing in their midst.
Footnotes:
[1] A full length version of this paper was presented at the 4th International Conference for Ageing and Spirituality in Auckland, NZ 2009. Many thanks to the Healthcare Chaplaincy Council of Victoria Inc. and La Trobe University School of Public Health for their support in developing this project.
[2] For more information about the community packages program in Baptcare, see http://www.baptcare.org.au/lwp/wcm/connect/Baptist/Services/Community+Aged+Care/CAC+Packages
[3] Pastoral care definition from Dr. Bruce Rumbold, La Trobe University School of Pubic Health, Australia.
[4] Thanks to Southern Cross Care NSW, Libby Gilchrist Albury Base Hospital, Kerry Godbold Western Health and Donna Barnard Carrington Centennial Care NSW, for their willingness to share their thoughts.
Ilsa Hampton (BA, BTheol, Dip Ed) is the Pastoral Care Coordinator for Baptcare in Melbourne, Australia, leading a team of sixteen pastoral carers across two states. She is also qualified to supervise in Clinical Pastoral Education. She has over ten years experience as a pastoral care practitioner in a range of settings such as schools, a welfare organisation, supported accommodation for people with disabilities and a rehabilitation hospital. She was a member of the editorial board of Ministry, Society and Theology from 2000-2005. She has lived at the Indigenous Hospitality House in Melbourne, and joined with other communities of faith along the way, who also seek to embody their faith in Christ (currently Brunswick Baptist). Ilsa shares life with her little son Liam, husband Mark, and two step-children, Anusha and Mattheus.
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