BeaconNews from HealthCare Chaplaincy
The
Bold Vision for America’s First Palliative Care Campus
Inaugurates 50th Anniversary Year
2010 Wholeness of Life Awards Dinner honors the chairmen of the Board of Trustees
from our first 50 years and patient care experts from partner hospitals.
HealthCare Chaplaincy inaugurated
its 50th anniversary year on
November 4th at its annual gather-
ing of friends – the Wholeness of Life
Awards Dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street – by
presenting highlights of its plan to build
America’s first palliative care campus.
Also that evening HealthCare Chaplaincy
honored 16 leaders who have served as
chairmen of our board of trustees
through our first 50 years as well as 11
health care professionals from our part-
ner institutions who provide extraordinary
care for their patients.
America’s first palliative care campus will
change the way Americans care for peo-
ple with life-altering illness.
Palliative care helps people to live well and
live fully. It reduces suffering. It matches
treatments to a person’s wishes and values.
Palliative care is concerned about and
embraces the whole person. It’s patient-
centered.
The palliative care team includes physi-
cians, nurses, social workers, profes-
sional chaplains, and others.
C o n t i n u e d o n p a g e 3
Vol. 35 No. 4 / November 2010
The Palliative Care Campus will be located in lower Manhattan overlooking the FDR Drive and EastRiver. It will be housed in a beautifully-designed, environmentally-sustainable, iconic building thatwill add grace and elegance to the New York City skyline.
Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN’s AndersonCooper 360o, narrates the new Video about ourpast achievements and future plans, “Caring fora City’s Soul.” View it at our website:healthcarechaplaincy.org.
At the November 4th Wholeness of Life AwardsDinner Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney(14th District New York) honored HealthCareChaplaincy by presenting a CongressionalRecord citation in tribute to our first fifty yearsof service.
News Briefs
This fall HealthCare Chaplaincy is
conducting an outstanding thirteen-session
educational seminar series to educate all
staff on key components of palliative care.
Leading the seminars are nationally
recognized speakers and qual i f ied
HealthCare Chaplaincy faculty.
The first session’s speaker
was Nessa Coyle, Ph.D.,
R N , F A A N , a n u r s e
practitioner at Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center with special training
in the care of symptomatic advanced cancer
patients and their families, and in end-of- life
care. She spoke about the philosophy of
palliative care.
The second session
presented an overview of
research findings on
palliative care, presented by
Kevin Flannelly, Ph.D.,
associate director of
research, Spears Research
Institute at HealthCare
Chaplaincy, and Nava
Silton, Ph.D., a former
postdoctoral Templeton
fe l l ow a t Hea l thCare
Chaplaincy and now a visiting professor at
Marymount Manhattan College.
The third session topic was
legal issues in chaplaincy,
a n d p a l l i a t i v e c a r e
presented by Bob Wolf,
HealthCare Chaplaincy’s
senior vice president for
development and innovation. His
presentation covered a broad range of legal
issues, including government benefits,
power of attorney, advance directives,
housing, consumer credit, immigration,
insurance disputes, wills, and employer
accommodation.
The Rev. George Handzo,
HealthCare Chaplaincy’s
vice president for pastoral
care leadership and
practice, was the guest speaker at the
September 15th Grand Rounds at
Northern Michigan Regional Hospital. His
subject was the role of spiritual care in
health care. The hospital serves 22
counties and a population of 400,000.
“Spiritual care isn’t or shouldn’t be an add-
on to health care,” Rev Handzo declared.
“It should be a valuable part of the regular
health care component. Chaplains
shouldn’t just be brought in at the end of a
patient’s life but should be there at the very
beginning of care, to offer support in any
way possible.”
According to Larry Funk, the Spiritual Care
Coordinator at Northern Michigan, the
number of people requesting hospital
chaplain visits has increased as more
people become aware of the role of
chaplains in the health care field.
Rev. Handzo’s visit affirmed the hospital’s
approach and provided new knowledge.
Mr. Funk said, “He emphasized the
importance of whole person care inclusive
of body, mind and spirit. His visit and
presentation left us encouraged, refocused
and energized.”
With so many Muslim and Jewish holidays
occurring in the Fall, the St. Luke’s Hospital
Diversity Council arranged several
presentations in late August to help foster
understanding and appreciation of those
upcoming observances.
HealthCare Chaplaincy’s
Imam Yusuf Hasan, a
staff chaplain at St.
L u k e ’s , g a v e a n
overview of Ramadan
and Eid Al-Fitr, Muslim
holy days observed by
many of the hospital’s
Muslim associates. The
talk aimed at broadening understanding
about Islam and the month-long religious
observance of Ramadan, and to be mindful
and respectful of Muslim associates who
may be fasting and praying for 30 days.
The fo l l ow ing week
Chaplaincy’s Rabbi Michael
Cohen, also a staff chaplain
at St. Luke’s, talked about
Rosh Hashanah, Yom
Kippur, Succoth and other
Jewish holidays to be
observed in the coming months.
The Diversity Council is charged with
promoting an understanding of diversity,
inclusion and respect at St. Luke’s Hospital.
For the second time this year, the New York
Daily News has featured HealthCare
Chaplaincy and one of our partner
institutions in its Sunday “Faith in the City”
page. Most recently shown was Lenox Hill
Hospital, and Chaplaincy director the Rev.
Wilfredo Rodriguez, and chaplains Rabbi
Ralph Kreger and the Rev. Christian
Christopher. We are proud of our 50 year
affiliation with Lenox Hill, which was one of
our first partner institutions in 1961. Here
are some excerpts:
� Size and character of congregation: “We
help 600 patients, family and staff find
comfort and meaning regardless of reli-
gion or beliefs. We provide prayers,
Scripture reading and counseling by the
bedside,” said Rodriguez.
� Proudest moment: “Our Wholeness of
Life Award ceremony and dinner spon-
sored by HealthCare Chaplaincy, which
honors individuals who realize the
importance of addressing the whole
needs of patients: physical, emotional
and spiritual,” Rodriguez said.
2 The Beacon
Northern Michigan Regional Hospital.
With the population of those over age 65
steadily increasing, there is a growing con-
se n su s t h a t America needs new cost-
effective care models that are more patient-
centered and responsive to the needs of spirit,
mind and body.
This is why HealthCare Chaplaincy is develop-
ing America’s first Palliative Care Campus. It will:
� Change the way care is provided for resi-
dents with serious progressive illness
through more accessible, more coordi-
nated, more integrated care. � Provide an optimal quality of life for residents
and their significant others during illness.� Help residents better understand their
choices for care and tailor treatment to
meet individual needs.
The Palliative Care Campus will house a 120
unit model enhanced assisted living residence
for persons with serious progressive illness;
our education, research, clinical practice and
administrative offices; and a palliative care and
geriatric medical home for residents and the
Lower East Side community.
Development is well underway and construc-
tion at the Lower Manhattan site is slated to
begin in the Summer of 2011 with a 2013 tar-
geted completion date. �
To find out more, please contact
Anastasia Hagan, Associate Vice
President for Advancement at
2 1 2 - 6 4 4 - 1 1 1 1 x 1 3 5 o r
C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 1
<Bold Vision for America’s First Palliative Care
Campus Inaugurates 50th Anniversary Year
3 The Beacon
ADERONKE A.
ADEgBENRODietetic Technician
North Shore University Hospital
SHERRY I. BACKUS, PT,
DPT, MA Clinical Supervisor of the Motion
Analysis Laboratory
Hospital for Special Surgery
RAlPH BERNARDINI, RTSenior Recreation Therapist 3
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital
Extraordinary Individuals Honored
The Wholeness of Life Awards Dinner honored the chairmen of HealthCare Chaplaincy’s Board of Trustees who have led the
organization through 50 years of caring, healing, and growth. They are Robert C. Brown, the Rev. Dr. John S. Damm, William
W. Donnell, the Rev. C. Hugh Hildesley, the Rev. Frederick Hill (deceased), the Rev. Alanson B. Houghton, Donald J. Keller, T.
Michael Long, Anthony P. Marshall, Esq., the Rev. Hugh D. McCandless (deceased), Charlotte Miller, Ralph U. Price, William
G. Spears, Lawrence J. Toal, Rabbi Harlan J. Wechsler, D.D., and Eugene I. Zuriff.
Also honored for their achievements were these health care professionals who care for patients as whole persons in spirit mind,
and body. HealthCare Chaplaincy manages, staffs, and operates board certified chaplaincy services at these institutions. �
The campus will house a geriatric and palliative caremedical home practice, which will providemultidisciplinary care not only for our residents, butfor people who live in the neighboring communities.
SHIRlEY ESCAlA, MA,
BSN, RN Nurse Manager, Oncology Department
Beth Israel Medical Center
JEANNE FARERI, RNC Staff Nurse - Radiology
Lawrence Hospital Center
HIllARY E. FEDER,
MSN, MPH Nurse Practitioner
St. John’s Riverside Hospital
FREDERICK S. FEIN, MDDirector, Telemetry Service
Winthrop-University Hospital
ElIzABETH HAlTON, RN,
MSN/C-ANPNurse Practitioner
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
BARRIE J. HUBERMAN, PHDChief, Behavioral Medicine & Director of
Clinical Ethics
Lenox Hill Hospital
J. THOMAS ROlAND, JR.,
MDMendik Foundation Professor and Chairman
of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
NYU Langone Medical Center
PATRICIA WOODS, PHDDirector of Psychological Services, Chief
Learning Officer of NYHQ College
New York Hospital Queens
Robert Wolf has joined HealthCare Chaplaincy as
senior vice president for innovation and development.
An expert in geriatrics, Bob has been the senior advisor
to the SC Group, one of the country’s most important
philanthropic foundations in the field of geriatrics, and
most recently has served as director of special projects
at AARP Foundation. For 20 years prior, Bob was the
executive director of medical and geriatric programs for
UJA Federation in New York City. He has also had a
distinguished career in law, and was one of the first
attorneys to specialize in elder law.
“I feel fortunate to be part of the stellar leadership at
HealthCare Chaplaincy, a world-class organization that
helps bring meaning and solace to those most in need.”
New Trustee Susan Spindler Jordan has been a prin-
cipal in her own independent advertising agency for
the past thirty years. Much of her work focused on
developing TV campaigns for consumer health com-
panies. Some of her clients include Johnson &
Johnson, Weight Watchers and Zicam. More recently,
she has also worked on producing documentaries for
various non-profit organizations. She has served on
the governing boards at Choate Rosemary Hall and
Villa Maria School and is looking forward to advancing
the mission of HealthCare Chaplaincy. Susan holds a
BA in English from Elmira College.
“My husband’s illness and dying showed me the value
of quality end-of-life care. Chaplaincy has played an
important part in my life and I am pleased to join
a board that so vigorously supports that mission.”
Chaplain Osvaldo Tanon has successfully
completed Supervisory Resident training
and has joined the faculty as an associate
clinical pastoral education supervisor (eli-
gible) at St. Johns Riverside Hospital in
Yonkers.
Sandra Lee Jamison is HCC’s new research
librarian. She previously was a news research
librarian at The New York Times, TIME
Magazine and Queensborough Public Library.
A native New Yorker, she finished her Bachelor
of Arts at SUNY Stony Brook and Masters in
Library Science at Columbia University.
Lisha Bodden is now the advancement
associate. Most recently she was a devel-
opment assistant with the Metropolitan
Jewish Health System Foundation.
Xiomara Wallace is now the administrative
assistant to Claire Haaga Altman, executive
vice president and COO. Most recently she
was the executive assistant/project man-
ager for special health events and education
for the Duane Reade Corporation.
Aleksandr Froymchuk has rejoined HCC as
a staff accountant in our Finance
Department. He comes to us from Kiwi
Partners, a New York City financial consult-
ing firm, where he worked as an Analyst.
To support HealthCare Chaplaincy online; to arrange “In honor of” and “In memory of” gifts; and for information
about other types of support, please visit our Website: www.healthcarechaplaincy.org. For personal assistance,
please contact Lisha Bodden at 212.644.1111, ext. 132, or at [email protected]. Advancement
Office: 315 East 62nd
Street; New York, NY 10065; 212.644.1111, ext. 132.
� A Note to Our Friends
Profiles
4 The Beacon
HealthCare Chaplaincy
has begun the celebra-
tion of its golden jubilee
year – annus jubilaeus. In the
Hebrew Bible, God commanded
the Israelites through Moses to
consecrate and observe in special
ways the 50th year (Leviticus 25:10).
Through fulfilling this ancient bibli-
cal mandate, we reconnect with
our roots, heritage and mission.
God also expected that the jubilee
year would renew faith and confidence in the divine power to
bestow meaning and purpose on everything we do and achieve.
For the past 50 years, generations of our chaplains from every faith
tradition have worked together and spiritually cared for more than
5 million people, helping them find meaning, hope, comfort, for-
giveness and inner peace. During the past half-century, we have
toiled to insure that spirituality—after a long absence—reclaim its
rightful place alongside medicine and the other healing arts. We
have helped to promote the integration of body, mind and spirit in
contemporary health care.
Affirming an intrinsic relationship between spirituality and health,
HealthCare Chaplaincy has been harnessing its resources to
establish the validity of this connection in the hope of better under-
standing why there is this essential bond and how it works.
The second Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag
Hammarskjöld, died in 1961—the year that HealthCare
Chaplaincy was established. I conclude by recalling his famous
phrase, which could be a refrain for this jubilee year: “For all that
has been—thanks. For all that will be—yes.” �
Ilearned about the need for palliative care long before I heard the
term used. In college I worked nights as an EMT. I worked in rural
and urban settings, in the field and in hospitals. I saw death first-
hand, and I watched as my colleagues – all expertly trained in the skills
of saving lives – either stood helplessly by or fought vainly against the
inevitable. I thought surely there must be a better way.
Then, as a seminarian, I worked with the Institute of Care at the End of
Life as they sought to find that better way. Through them, I found my
way to the Palliative Care service at Duke Medical Center, and was for-
ever changed.
Palliative care is holistic care by an interdisciplinary team. To palliate is
to comfort. So palliative care naturally includes excellent pain and
symptom management. It also includes emotional and spiritual sup-
port. It might involve everything from nutrition to grief support, med-
ication management to meditation, depending upon the needs of the
patient. It is the epitome of multidisciplinary, patient-centered care.
Such care might benefit people who are approaching end of life, but it
might also benefit anyone with a chronic, life-limiting illness. And,
according to my personal theology of pastoral care, such care would
certainly benefit every person, regardless of diagnosis.
The research is coming in steadily: the early intervention of palliative
care directly translates to an increased quality of life, a reduction in
pain, and even a lengthened life expectancy for patients with terminal
and life-limiting illness. In other words, palliative care properly done,
lifts the human spirit. It is that simple.
Today I have the unusual privilege of serving as HealthCare
Chaplaincy’s member of the palliative care team at NYU Langone
Medical Center, at a job that lifts my spirits, as I in turn hopefully con-
tribute to the lifting of the many spirits of patients, families and staff. �
A M
essa
ge fro
m th
e R
ev. D
r. Wa
lter J
. Sm
ith, S
.J., P
resid
en
t & C
EO
“Spirituality is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their
connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred.” (Source: Archstone Foundation 2009 Consensus Conference)
5 The Beacon
ifting the Spirit
The Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith, S.J.
President & CEO
Lifting Spirits on the Palliative Care Team
Chaplain Holly Gaudette, Staff Chaplain, New York University Langone Medical Center.
Vol. 35 No. 4 / The Beacon November 2010
HealthCare Chaplaincy is a national nonprofit leader in the research,
education and evidence-based practice of professional multifaith
chaplaincy care. It helps people find meaning and comfort — regardless
of religion or beliefs — in stressful health care situations. It is a thought
leader for patient-centered care and accessible, affordable, and quality
palliative care. For nearly fifty years it has collaborated successfully with
major academic medical centers and other professional organizations
in the integration of spiritual care within health care.
Presorted Standard
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PAIDWilkes-Barre, PA
Permit No. 413
315 East 62nd Street, 4th FloorNew York, NY 10065-7767Phone: (212) 644-1111 Fax: (212) 758-9959healthcarechaplaincy.org
Managing Editor: Bernie Rosner Art & Design: Brian H. Kim
Director of Marketing & Communications: Jim Siegel
(212) 644-1111, ext.141/ [email protected]
Spotlight on Palliative Care
Visit us online at healthcarechaplaincy.org
Follow us on at http://twitter.com/MeaningComfort
“Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention
and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.”
– World Health Organization, WHO Definition of Palliative Care, 2010
6 The Beacon
Alandmark study by researchers at
Massachusetts General Hospital and
reported in the New England Journal of
Medicine found that receiving palliative care
early in treatment not only improved quality of
life but also survival in patients with newly diag-
nosed metastatic non small-cell lung cancer.
Patients receiving palliative care intervention
experienced less depression and survived
approximately 2.7 months longer.
Palliative care is provided by a team consisting
of doctors, nurses, nutritionists, social workers,
chaplains, pharmacists and others, who focus
on the whole person to provide comfort, ease
pain and help the patient, family and caregivers
make important decisions.
Commenting on the study, Diane Meier, MD,
director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care
wrote: “The results of the study show that
palliative care is appropriate and potentially
beneficial when it is introduced at the time of
diagnosis of a serious or life-limiting illness – at
the same time as all other appropriate and
beneficial medical therapies are initiated.
“It shows that palliative care is the opposite of all
that rhetoric about ‘death panels.’ It’s not about
killing Granny; it’s about keeping Granny alive
as long as possible — with the best quality of
life.” �
Study Finds Early Palliative Care Extends Life and Improves Quality of Life for
Cancer Patients
Patients’ rights in New York State
gained a large boost last month with
the passage of the Palliative Care
Information Act.
The law requires New York doctors and nurse
practitioners to offer terminally ill patients
information and counseling that includes a full
range of information about end of life care
options, including hospice care, aggressive
pain management, and palliative sedation.
The patient is then empowered to control his
or her own medical care decisions.
Where the patient lacks the capacity to
reasonably understand and make informed
choices related to palliative care, “the
attending health care practitioner shall provide
information and counseling under this section
to a person with authority to make health care
decisions for the patient.”
Claire Haaga Altman, HealthCare Chaplaincy
COO, says, “HealthCare Chaplaincy has
consistently supported this type of legislation
within New York State and at the national
level.” �
State Law Now Mandates Palliative Care Information to Terminally Ill Patients
© 2010, HealthCare Chaplaincy
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