The state of spiritual care in the Sunrise Health Region (SHR) is currently in a state of flux. Following the most recent budget, the position of chaplain at the Yorkton Regional Health Centre was eliminated, and some groups within the city are working to find a way to bring it back.
Peter Hay, with the Yorkton Ministerial Association, says he and others have been working diligently since the cut was announced to get the position reinstated. He points out, there are many throughout the community who desire the same.
"We are concerned that there is no spiritual care at the hospital," he states.
Suann Laurent, interim CEO of the Sunrise Health Region, says the region is willing to talk, and hopes to come up with a solution in the coming weeks.
"A committee is coming together to look at all of the options, including the ministerial association, to look at what we can do to come together and offer services to all of our communities," Laurent states.
One thing that will not happen is the chaplain position being reinstated and fully funded by the Health Region. Laurent says the position is simply too expensive to accommodate with a $1.8 million budget shortfall, and that an alternative solution must be found in order to keep it in the hospital.
"This is a very tough, tough decision that the board made. We have to partner with our communities, because we cannot afford to do everything under the health services umbrella. It's not that we don't think that it is important, and we certainly realize that, we just want to explore other options for the service," Laurent explains.
Hay says the Ministerial Association is willing to offer a subsidy in order to keep the position in the hospital. The initial offer was a subsidy of $10,000, but Hay adds, this was an opening offer, and the association is willing to negotiate.
One solution which will not work, says Hay, is getting pastors in the city to do the job on a volunteer basis. According to the local minister, this has been attempted before and it was not an effective way to provide the service.
"The time required far surpasses the time individual pastors have available, so we know that won't work. Because we know it won't work, we'll probably say no when asked," he notes.
The other issue with that system is that the chaplain position requires special training, Hay notes. He explains that the position involves specific training dealing with crisis management and grief counselling, which most pastors would not have. He cites the example of a recent accident involving nine teenagers, where the chaplain had to help nine families deal with the crisis, and also help EMTs and police officers who were shaken by what happened.
"He (the chaplain) deals with everybody. Not just patients, he deals with patient families, he deals with the staff at the hospital, everything. The medical people are trained to deal with the physical part, they're not trained to deal with the spiritual, or the emotional and psychological part of these difficulties. That's why you have a trained professional," Hay asserts.
One of the problems which Hay says has been encountered is a lack of response from the region. He adds, that members of the association have been sending letters to the health board, but they are finding the response slow.
Laurent says that the speed of the meetings has been dictated by a desire to bring all of the stakeholders together, and that bringing everyone together takes time.
Hay would like to emphasize that the Ministerial Association does not want to attack the Health Region and the work that they do, but that the association simply desires a high standard of spiritual care at the Regional Health Centre, and they are willing to work to provide it.
Laurent says over the next few weeks meetings will be arranged to try to come up with a solution that can satisfy both parties. She emphasizes that while in-house administration of the program is not possible, the board wants to work with communities to provide the service.
