Rady Children's Hospital San Diego

Pastoral Care

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Pastoral Care

Mission Statement

The Mission of the Pastoral Care Department at Rady Children's is to provide exemplary pastoral care to patients and their families, as well as to staff, giving spiritual support and resources with respect for each person's faith tradition, spiritual perspective and functioning in an interdisciplinary manner with other healthcare colleagues.

Reverend John Breding, M.Div leads the Pastoral Care Department for Rady Children's and is the Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor. You may reach him at 858-966-7493 or jbreding@rchsd.org

Reverend John Boller, M.Div, MFT is the chaplain on staff for Rady Children's and may be reached at 858-966-7493 or jboller@rchsd.org.

Aspects of the Pastoral Care Department:

Description of Services

Pastoral Care is available to all patients and families at Rady Children's, attending to the spiritual concerns that arise in the hospital setting. The chaplain helps integrate spiritual support and understanding into the healthcare setting and provides pastoral care in the context of the family's spiritual perspective and religious tradition. Chaplains routinely work with families from a variety of religious traditions, as well as with families who do not have a spiritual tradition or practice.

Spiritual concerns are very common when a child is hospitalized, whether or not a family previously had a spiritual practice. For this reason, pastoral care provides assessment of spiritual or philosophical concerns, along with pastoral interventions to assist patients and families in adjusting to and coping with the illness or injury they are facing. These interventions are done with respect to the family's spiritual and cultural perspective. Chaplains are trained in faith development and provide pastoral care to pediatric patients with respect to the patient's developmental level.

The Pastoral Care Department includes:

  • Chaplain Staff
  • Volunteer Chaplain Program
  • Clinical Pastoral Education Program
  • Hope Bereavement Support Program

Pastoral Care services include:

  • Spiritual assessment of families and patients (with attention to the patient's developmental needs).
  • Pastoral crisis intervention.
  • Pastoral counsel for spiritual support, concerns, distress and guidance.
  • Clinical pastoral care to assist the patient and family adjust to and cope with the child's illness, injury and hospitalization.
  • Access to specific clergy for families, (priest, rabbi, imam, etc.).
  • Facilitation of the family's clergy or religious community to provide support for the family.
  • Pastoral consultation for bioethical questions that family and the healthcare team are facing.
  • Consultation for the healthcare team about spiritual, religious and cultural issues in patient care.
  • Religious rites, such as prayer, baptism, blessing, communion and anointing.
  • Spiritual support for patients and their families when a patient is dying.
  • Pastoral counseling for grief issues, particularly spiritual issues related to the death of a child.
  • Bereavement support around the time of and at the time of death.
  • Officiate funerals and memorial services.
  • Chapel space.
  • Inspirational literature.
  • Pastoral care for members of the healthcare team.
  • Debriefing the healthcare team after a crisis or to assist in adjusting with job demands.

 

Contact Us:

  • Phone: 858-966-7493