Team offers holistic support for the most challenging times
Hospital chaplains at Cleveland Clinic bring a big tool kit when they meet with patients and families. When they are invited to a room, they know they might be meeting people who are frightened, in pain, worried or in crisis. So the chaplains bring a listening ear. They can lead prayers, say blessings and offer healing touch techniques.
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Fundamentally, as Chaplain Brent Raitz sees it, the team supplies simple yet crucial presence for people who may feel they have, at least temporarily, lost control over their own lives. “In chaplaincy, it’s about showing up,” Raitz says. “It’s not about running people. Sometimes it means letting a patient kick you out of the room because you’re the only person that they can kick out of the room, and it restores a sense of power when everything else seems beyond their power.”
Under the direction of the Rev. Amy Greene, Dmin, Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Spiritual Care provides clinically trained chaplains, holistic nurses and family liaisons to support patients, families and employees through a variety of means. Hospital chaplains come from many faith traditions and meet people along all points of the faith spectrum. The center is also accredited for clinical pastoral education, providing training through weekly sessions as well as summer intensives and a residency program.
“Our work – even before Covid-19 – was and will always be to go where others may fear to tread. We are drawn, through calling and training, to know what to do when there seems little left to do,” says Greene. “Addressing things like dread, fear and grief is hard. We don’t try to cheer people up with hackneyed platitudes. Rather, we stand firm in the painful moments with them, not letting it overwhelm us, and providing a palpable reminder that they are not totally alone in their distress. It may seem like nothing, but countless people have told us otherwise. In an ocean of despair, even a drop of comfort is welcome.”
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Throughout much of 2021, Cleveland Clinic photographers Lisa DeJong and Annie O’Neill spent time with members of the Spiritual Care team as they went about their healing work. The images here provide just a glimpse of the breadth of what they do within a system dedicated to support health in every sense of the word.
The Rev. Amy Greene, DMin, was appointed Director of the Center for Spiritual Care at Cleveland Clinic in June 2013. She oversees the chaplains, healing services and family liaisons, who help patients’ families deal with procedural issues after a death. Greene is a certified educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education Inc. (Lisa DeJong)
At left, the Rev. Ikwo Umosen, DMin, holds an IV bag containing bone marrow cells as he prays with a patient who is about to receive them in a procedure at the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus. The patient’s parents are at right. Umosen is a board certified chaplain within the Association of Professional Chaplains and a trained holistic care practitioner. (Lisa DeJong)
Toreya Townsend places her hands over the face of fellow chaplaincy intern and Episcopal seminarian Leah Romanelli during a Reiki class at Cleveland Clinic. (Lisa DeJong)
Mirit Balkan, a Jewish chaplain at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital, performs a blessing of the hands during Nurses Week in May 2021. The ritual allows nurses and other caregivers a few moments to reflect on the healing they bring to all those they touch. (Lisa DeJong)
Between administering the blessing of hands during Nurses Week, the Rev. Brian Shields, Coordinator of Healing Services, offers scented hand lotion to caregivers in the lobby of Cleveland Clinic’s Miller Pavilion. Shields is a board certified chaplain. (Annie O’Neill)
Cheryl Causey, MSN, Nursing Professional Development Specialist at Cleveland Clinic’s Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence, hugs Chaplain Brian Shields after having her hands blessed by Shields in the lobby of Miller Pavilion. (Annie O’Neill)
Chaplain Brian Shields presides over a blessing-of-the-hands ceremony during Nurses Week.
A patient in Cleveland Clinic’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit experiences a light moment with Chaplain Ikwo Umosen during a Spiritual Care visit a few days before she receives a transplant. (Lisa DeJong)
The Rev. Brent Raitz performs Reiki on a patient in cardiac intensive care who was ravaged by COVID-19 and underwent a double lung transplant. Raitz, a board certified chaplain, spends much of his time ministering to patients in Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. (Lisa DeJong)
Rose Hosler, a certified holistic nurse and Healing Solutions Coordinator at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital, performs Reiki on a patient. Holistic nursing allows Hosler to “take a 360-degree look” at patients through conversation that allows her to learn about all aspects of their lives. (Annie O’Neill)
A patient at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital is soothed by nurse Rose Hosler’s touch. (Annie O’Neill)
Friends and colleagues gather for an early-morning Code Lavender after longtime Cleveland Clinic nurse Sue Sabo died of complications of cancer. Code Lavender allows time for caregivers to be supported in pausing to attend to their own emotional wellbeing after moments of crisis, trauma or loss. Sabo started her career working in intensive care. Ten years ago, she joined the vascular OR. Colleagues note that she enjoyed comforting nervous patients throughout their procedures. (Annie O’Neill)
The Spiritual Care team provides a wreath for friends and colleagues to tie ribbons to as a way to remember their friend and colleague Sue Sabo. (Annie O’Neill)
The Spiritual Care team provides ribbons to be tied onto a memorial wreath as a way for friends and colleagues to pay tribute to Sabo. The wreath will be brought back to Sabo’s department. (Annie O’Neill)
Wynette Shannon, left, an Environmental Services caregiver, and Kelly Aughenbaugh, right, a resident in pastoral care, share a light moment in the chapel at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital. (Annie O’Neill)
At right, the Rev. Celestia Gibson, Director of Pastoral Services at Cleveland Clinic Akron General, embraces a patient she has met during her rounds. Hospital chaplains bring an open heart to their visits, going into each room ready to listen, talk, laugh or pray – alone or together, depending on the patient’s wishes. It is not uncommon for patients to air feelings of grief, shame, fear and other challenging emotions during these visits, even when they are meeting chaplains for the first time. (Lisa DeJong)
Chaplain Mary Tracy , head of Spiritual Care at Cleveland Clinic Marymount Hospital, presides at an All Saints Day vigil for COVID-19 patients who have died. Paper bags illuminated by battery-powered candles contain the names of those lost to the virus. Tracy, who is board certified with the National Association of Catholic Chaplains, believes that ritual imparts meaning, value and acknowledgment to loss, and brings people together so they don't remain isolated in their own sorrow. (Lisa DeJong)
A two-day-old infant at Fairview Hospital receives a blessing from Chaplain Mirit Balkan. The baby’s parents welcomed Balkan’s impromptu offering as they were pushing her down the hall for a walk. (Lisa DeJong)
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