Pastoral Care
Any child’s illness will make parents anxious.
The threat or the reality of a child’s serious illness can be paralyzing for parents, and illness can give rise to any number of questions and issues surrounding the meaning of the illness, a questioning of belief in the world and self as they were before the diagnosis, extra stressors on relationships, and uncertainty and hope for the future.
At Hassenfeld we believe that these and other responses are normal reactions to an abnormal situation and we offer help and support to the children and their parents through the fields of Social Work, Child Life, Psychology, and Pastoral Care.
Pastoral Care is the area that relates to child and parents’ own religious and/or spiritual beliefs and practices.
We know that each person’s beliefs and practices can be extremely important and a significant resource of comfort and support throughout the course of treatment; at the same time, in the context of illness, we also know that spiritual and religious beliefs can be barriers and obstructions that inhibit true healing.
We provide Pastoral Care through our Chaplains, who are available through the Hospital’s Department of Pastoral Care and Education.
Our Chaplains, who are of various denominations, have experience in working with faith in the context of illness.
They are trained to work in a multi-faith environment in a way that neither judges nor preaches, but accepts and understands the situation as it is.
Our Chaplains have two primary interventions that they provide for patients, families, and staff:
- Concrete, specific religious rituals and/or sacraments in moments of crisis;
- Longer-term interventions of pastoral care through listening, presence, religious or spiritual guidance, prayer, and religious rituals/sacraments in non-emergency situations.
We make every effort to respect each person’s belief system and to work within it.
While we may not always be able to find a Chaplain of every belief, we will do our best to find a Chaplain appropriate to your religious tradition, faith and belief so that you have resources from your tradition available to you.
Chaplains’ Contact Numbers
Department of Pastoral Care: 212-263-5903
Chaplain on-call: 917-240-7243
