Oconto Falls – HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital in Oconto Falls recognizes Spiritual Care Week – a time to honor those who serve in various ministries and provide spiritual healing to others in need.
Spiritual Care Week, coming up Oct. 21 – 27, is sponsored by the Coalition on Ministry in Specialized Settings Network – a national organization of spiritual care providers, professionals, chaplains and a faith group endorser. The week-long observance recognizes the importance of spirituality and spiritual leaders as a part of the healing process.
“Spiritual caregivers make rounds to patients every day and are on-call after hours to provide spiritual assistance to patients and their families,” explains Mary Salm, Director of Spiritual Care and Mission Integration for HSHS Wisconsin and Door County Medical Center. “During times of illness, knowing someone cares brings a sense of healing and hope to the sick and their families. They offer support and education, share prayers and simply listen to patients.”
Each day, spiritual caregivers are invited into the life experiences of women, men, children and organizations. Spiritual Care Week provides an opportunity for the community to recognize chaplains and spiritual care counselors, educators and providers for bringing many gifts to the process of restoration to patients, young and old.
“Spiritual Care Week is a wonderful time to recognize those providing spiritual care within our community,” says Salm. “We honor the work of our hospital chaplains during this week, but also the work of the many other clergy and spiritual leaders throughout the area who faithfully come to be with their parishioners during hospital stays.”
All those who provide spiritual care to others, regardless of faith tradition, whether clergy or not, those who give spiritual care in specialized settings such as hospitals, prisons, businesses, industries, long-term care facilities, spiritual counseling centers, hospices, military settings, nursing homes, congregations of sisters, priests and brothers, schools, universities, seminaries, and many more – HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital celebrates them and appreciates all they do for our patients and the community.
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About HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital
HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital serves Oconto Falls and the surrounding communities as a federally-designated critical access hospital with a 24-hour emergency department, urgent care, general, vascular and orthopedic surgical services, inpatient and outpatient surgical and diagnostic services, rehabilitation, oncology outpatient clinic and women’s care. HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital, in affiliation with Prevea Health, has six regional health center locations in Gillett, Lena, Mountain, Oconto, Oconto Falls and Suring. HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital Pharmacies are located in Gillett and Oconto Falls. Founded in 1921 as Community Memorial Hospital, in 2014, HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital became the fourteenth hospital in Hospital Sisters Health System. As an affiliate of Hospital Sisters Health System, we draw on the history of St. Francis of Assisi as we move to continue serving the health care needs of our area in Christ’s healing ministry, caring for all people. For more information about St. Clare, visit www.stclarememorial.org.
About Hospital Sisters Health System
Hospital Sisters Health System’s (HSHS) mission is to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through our high quality, Franciscan health care ministry. HSHS provides state-of-the-art health care to our patients and is dedicated to serving all people, especially the most vulnerable, at each of our 15 Local Systems and physician practices in Illinois (Breese, Decatur, Effingham, Greenville, Highland, Litchfield, O’Fallon, Shelbyville and Springfield) and Wisconsin (Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Oconto Falls, Sheboygan, and two in Green Bay). HSHS is sponsored by Hospital Sisters Ministries. For more information about HSHS, visit www.hshs.org. For more information about Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, visit www.hospitalsisters.org.