“When you walk these halls, there’s the sense of complete disconnection,” relates Rhonda R., who has been spending days at a time at the hospital with her 9-year-old son while he undergoes cancer treatments. “Life, normal life, has disappeared. We who are here wake and dream of playing outside with our children or reading beneath the trees. We even dream of things we never thought we’d miss, like grocery shopping and cooking. It’s easy to feel alone.
“When the rabbi brought some homemade chicken soup to the room, it reminded me of home. It was a bit of light in my current dark world.”
In response to a growing need for increased Jewish hospital services across the United States, Merkos Suite 302 at Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y., started Chabad on Call. Dedicated to training Chabad emissaries as chaplains, the new entity recently launched a CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) online training course in partnership with HCCN (HealthCare Chaplaincy Network), which is accredited by ACPE (Association for Clinical Pastoral Education Inc.).
“We blend hands-on practice, clinical supervision and academic study,” says Chani Goldberg, director of Chabad on Call. “The course empowers its participants to serve their patients more effectively.”
The program, which began this month, will equip Chabad emissaries and others with the medical and halachic knowledge to become valuable members of the healing team.
“It’s going incredibly well. I’m enjoying both the didactic and clinical parts of the course,” says Rabbi Peretz Shapiro of Chabad of Dallas, one of the inaugural participants.
Chabad on Call is committed to helping create a warm community within the hospital environment by reaching out to patients, their families and medical staff, addressing emotional and spiritual needs.
By equipping Chabad emissaries with chaplaincy training, educational materials and appropriate seed funds, the program will enable rabbis and their wives to devote more time to hospital visitation. It is also providing resources such as prayer booklets for patients and their families, an online database allowing users to locate the Chabad services at any given hospital, and educational webinars and courses.
Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, executive director of Merkos Suite 302, says “we are excited about this incredible opportunity to provide more focused support to Chabad emissaries in this most vital component of their shlichus.”
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