Spiritual Care at Hospice - Peter Fox
For the last 15 years I have been responsible for facilitating the Spiritual Care and Companioning of patients living with life-threatening illnesses. That has involved working in teams with nursing sisters and social workers at Hospice. I visit patients on our wards and in the community. I have been seconded to this work by Presbytery. It has been a remarkable and life changing privilege to be alongside these patients when they are engaging their transition from this life and world. It has a way of placing priorities clearly, expressing kindness more generously and immediately and acknowledging the blessing and enrichment of loves transaction in our lives.
Over the last few years I have had a team to assist me and have simultaneously developed a private practise as a Pastoral Counsellor, trained in Psychological understanding in the areas of couple counselling and grief and loss therapy. I use the rooms at Rondebosch United for this purpose. My work here has involved me facilitating some of our congregants concerns in a counselling capacity.
I train a team of 7 men and 20 women who do this work of accompaniment. We have regular case study meetings and general meetings to upskill ourselves. The team are involved with patients in all sorts of spiritually supportive ways – journaling, art, meditation, prayer, music and counselling.
The number of visits carried out by the team of 27 volunteers and myself amounts to about 616 visits a month. Sometimes these visits are longer than an hour because of the way the conversation is led. I am also involved often in meeting private patients who are ill and have been referred to me by their doctors for counselling. Often then these patients then become Hospice clients.
The work done by the team extends to the day cares in West Coast, False Bay, Athlone, Khayelitsha,
I am also responsible for doing some post death bereavement counselling of the spouses of patients who died in our care. We work with an interfaith team that includes a Buddhist teacher, a Muslim Imam, a Rabbi and several Christian Ministers. Differences in religion, race and culture and language shift into softer focus in the light of the serious challenge of engaging the realities of a shortened life span.
I have the responsibility of supervising our Counsellor at Lentegeur where we treat Aids and Cancer patients. Funds are always a challenge and we are grateful to the Cape Town public and our American supporters who assist us in raising a large budget Patient Care on the ward is costly and many patients do not pay if they have little or no means
The challenge of Hospice Care is to get patients on board early, because then the preparation work for dying can be done in an unpressured way and all the essential things that need attention can be attended to. The book I co-authored with Sue Wood Dying: A Practical Guide for the Journey has been helpful in this regard.
Questions/responses we engage are: 'I feel hopeless and just want to die', 'I am tired of fighting this', 'The doctors were slow in making the diagnosis', 'What will happen after Death?', 'I am afraid that I will not really be dead at the end', 'I hate being the burden I am to my family', 'I have been bankrupted by this illness', 'I want you to help me with the decision to decide against any further treatment', 'How can prayer help now?', 'I do not believe God cares at all - it's all a ruse', 'I fear Hell', 'I will never receive the forgiveness I need', 'Please help me die', 'Can you help me die sooner? There must be a pill to take'.
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