Spiritual Care
We provide spiritual comfort and guidance tailored to your individual needs.
Overview
Our chaplains and spiritual care volunteers provide spiritual comfort and guidance for patients, families and staff of any background, tailored to individual beliefs and needs. In addition, we have chaplains and volunteers who speak Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Spanish and French and also have access to hospital interpreters.
Our services include:
- Bedside visits with generous listening, emotional support and companionship for adults, children, newborns and their families
- Prayers, blessings and rituals for healing, help and gratitude for:
- coping with illness and hospitalization
- receiving news (good or bad)
- preparing for and recovering from surgery
- end of life
- holiday observance and life cycle events
- other situations
- Assistance with Jewish observance in the hospital, including keeping kosher, daily prayer, Shabbat and holidays
- Assistance with family meetings and decision making as part of the health care team, including Jewish medical ethics
- End of life information and counseling for decision making including life review, ethical wills, bereavement, death and dying, funeral, burial, cremation, memorial and mourning practices
- Connecting to other hospital services, such as Guest Services (special patient services, music, art, massage, therapeutic dog visits), social workers and other resources
- Collaboration with area clergy
- Family assistance in finding food, housing and other resources
- Connection to community resources, including synagogues, Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Sinai Memorial Chapel and others