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HealthCare Chaplaincy Network (HCCN) is a New York City-based nonprofit organization with 63 years’ experience providing and advancing spiritual care in the health care arena. Our mission is to relieve suffering and offer comfort and support to people of all backgrounds and beliefs who are facing illness, end of life, or other situations where spiritual and emotional distress are common. Providing spiritual care means attending to patients’ and families’ heartfelt values and deepest concerns as part of their health care. Chaplains ensure that human connection is not lost in the rush to apply all the technical capabilities of medical science. Also, by helping patients address the spiritual, existential, and emotional challenges arising during illness and at the end of life, chaplains open the door to opportunities for growth and wholeness in these universal situations. As a small organization, HCCN has achieved outsized influence with programs that have national and international reach. While we continue to provide direct care through on-site chaplaincy at Manhattan’s Hospital for Special Surgery and St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Bayside, Queens, we have grown into a leading educator in best spiritual care practices for chaplains, nurses, social workers, doctors, and volunteers across the country and around the world. HCCN is focusing as no other organization on making sure that chaplains are included on health care teams. In 2016, HCCN established the Spiritual Care Association (SCA), the first multidisciplinary nonprofit committed solely to strengthening and unifying our field. Only eight years after its launch, SCA has become a world leader in educating, credentialing, and advocating for evidence-informed spiritual care, and has created new resources not only for chaplains but for nurses, social workers, and doctors to ensure a pathway for spiritual care in all situations. Chaplains and other professionals trained and supported by HCCN and SCA are providing person-to-person care at hospitals, hospices, outpatient facilities, and in first response situations throughout the U.S. In addition, approximately 4,500 professionals – chaplains, nurses, social workers, clergy, and others – have taken courses at our Learning Center to improve their delivery of spiritual care. HCCN also has catalyzed spiritual care research through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, which has resulted in ground-breaking studies that provide an evidence base for the effectiveness of spiritual care in health care. And through the publication of numerous key foundational white papers, and our annual Caring for the Human Spirit® Conference, HCCN’s outreach and advocacy is now felt throughout the spiritual care field. At HealthCare Chaplaincy Network, we spend 89 cents out of every dollar on programs and services, and have achieved GuideStar’s highest rating. We are investing our resources to truly move this field forward, for the benefit of individuals facing life’s defining moments. With our strong leadership, fully engaged board, and a vision to continue growing our field, we believe this work represents a wonderfully worthwhile investment for all who wish to create a more compassionate health care system.

The mission of HealthCare Chaplaincy Network (HCCN) is to provide and ensure compassionate, skillful care of the spirit for people facing illness, end of life, and other situations of spiritual and emotional suffering.

Founded in 1961, HCCN is a world leader in integrating spiritual care in health care through clinical practice, education, research, and advocacy. HCCN has grown from a small program providing hospital chaplaincy in the New York metro area into an internationally ... Czytaj dalej

• Chaplains trained and supported by HCCN and our nonprofit affiliate, the Spiritual Care Association (SCA), provide care for patients, their loved ones, and medical staff at health care facilities in New York and across the country.
• Through our Learning Center, we offer 28 courses on various aspects of spiritual care; 4,500 students have taken Learning Center courses to date.
• Our annual Caring for the Human Spirit Conference brings together 200-300 chaplains, nurses, and others to explore best spiritual care practices.
• HCCN supplies the only evidence-based curriculum for chaplaincy students to our partner, the Institute for Clinical Pastoral Training, which teaches over 600 students each year.
• We pioneered telechaplaincy, allowing people to reach chaplains by phone, email, or video call. This proved to be vital during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• HCCN creates best-practice papers for chaplains, nurses, social workers, and doctors, which focus on each discipline's role in meeting patients' and families' spiritual care needs.

Spiritual Care Association
In 2016, HCCN founded the Spiritual Care Association (SCA) to standardize the field of professional chaplaincy by providing education and certification backed by research-based best practices. SCA’s development of Quality Indicators and Scope of Practice in spiritual care ensures that the performance of SCA-trained chaplains can be measured objectively; this is vital importance to health care administrators. We have also created new methods of training for nurses, physicians, social workers, and volunteers. With affiliates in 15 countries, SCA has quickly become a leader in educating, certifying, and advocating to ensure that people of all faiths and backgrounds can receive effective spiritual care in a broad range of settings.

Capstone University
Capstone University was founded by HCCN and SCA in 2019 to develop forward-thinking leaders and practitioners of spiritual care. Capstone’s multi-faith, interdisciplinary approach welcomes individuals from all caring professions, including chaplains, nurses, social workers, clergy, educators, and mental health care providers. It offers graduate degrees in Clinical Pastoral Psychotherapy, Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care Nursing, Spiritual Direction, Divinity, and Thanatology, and certificate programs in Spiritually Informed Social Work, Military Chaplaincy, Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy, and other areas.

These organizations – HCCN, SCA, and Capstone – form a unique platform to increase the effectiveness and availability of spiritual care in the health care arena and beyond.

Caring for the Human Spirit in the Medical Arena

• In 2016, the American Medical Association adopted policy acknowledging the importance of patient spirituality on health and encouraging patient access to spiritual care.
• The National Consensus Project Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care include spiritual care as one of eight essential domains of palliative care. The guidelines require the inclusion of a spiritual care provider on palliative care teams.
• In a study of 3,000 patients at the University of Chicago Medical Center (Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2011), patients who had a discussion about religious or spiritual concerns were 120% more likely to report excellent teamwork among their physicians and nurses and 60% more likely to rate overall care as excellent.
• In a study of 1,440 patients at 14 U.S. hospitals (Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling, 2004), patients reported that chaplain visits eased hospitalization, helped patients access mental strength, and accelerated recovery and readiness to return home.

Current Programming

New CMS Chaplaincy Codes
After years of urging by HCCN, and with the help of key partners in our field, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently agreed to include chaplaincy in their coding system that measures healthcare interventions across all settings. This system, known as the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System, has historically excluded the work of chaplains; therefore health care authorities have had no standard way to measure chaplain interventions and their effectiveness. In a medical arena ruled by measurable outcomes, this lack of agreed-upon measures has slowed the integration of spiritual care, sometimes resulting in the reduction and devaluing of chaplains’ contributions, and of spiritual care itself.

At its fall 2022 meeting, CMS agreed to establish new codes covering Patient Assessment, Individual Counseling, and Group Counseling by Chaplains. The data these codes produce will help define and improve the quality of health care chaplaincy and clarify the contributions that spiritual care makes to patient care.

HCCN is leading the process of instituting the codes through the following:

• We have released a website, www.CMSChaplainCodes.org, which provides essential information and links to a self-guided course on the codes.
• HCCN is offering a workshop on the codes for health care administrators and chaplains that can be conducted virtually or on-site.
• We are engaging vendors that supply hospitals with electronic medical record templates, including EPIC, which works with thousands of US hospitals. In consultation with HCCN, EPIC has added the codes to its template; this will eliminate the need for many hospitals to make these changes on their own.
• HCCN is conducting a large-scale pilot to incorporate the new codes in New York metro area hospitals.

Spiritual Care Resources
HCCN has provided resources to nearly 60 hospitals around the country, including consultation on spiritual care services and programs such as telechaplaincy (via phone, email, or video call) and HCCN-TV on hospital television systems for spiritual support. Additionally, thousands of chaplains trained through HCCN and the Spiritual Care Association are serving patients and clients, families and staff across the U.S. at hospitals, hospices, outpatient facilities, in first response situations, and in the workplace. In New York City, HCCN staff chaplains provide on-site care at Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan and St. Mary’s Hospital for Children in Queens.

Annual Conference
HCCN completed its 11th Caring for the Human Spirit Conference in April 2024, drawing over 200 participants. The conference offered 30 workshops covering a range of spiritual care-related subjects, and keynote and plenary addresses from leaders in our field. Planning for the 2025 conference has begun, with a call for presentations to share expertise and advance knowledge in our field.

Mental Health Course
HCCN is developing a course for our online Learning Center that will improve chaplains’ ability to address mental health issues such as depression and anxiety disorder in those they serve. This new resource will help chaplains become effective “mental health generalists” who can recognize and respond to signs of psychological issues in patients, families, and staff, and understand when it is appropriate to engage a mental health specialist. We expect to launch the course by fall 2024.

Addiction and Recovery Chaplaincy
HCCN is also creating a course, Addiction and Recovery Chaplaincy, to prepare chaplains to provide effective care for individuals suffering from addiction and their loved ones, and to support those in recovery. The course will equip chaplains to skillfully assess signs of addiction and provide appropriate spiritual care, thereby making chaplaincy care a more effective point of early intervention and support along the continuum of addiction and recovery.

Nursing Division
Our Nursing Division educates and advocates for the integration of spiritual care in nursing practice. The Division focuses on specialties that most require skill in spiritual care, including hospice, palliative care, oncology, and faith community nursing. Faith community nurses care for vulnerable individuals in their congregations, at elder living facilities, homeless shelters, and elsewhere. Their practice includes attention to patients’ spiritual well-being as well their physical, psychological and social needs.

First Responder Chaplain Division
Most chaplains working in first response are volunteers who have not undergone clinical pastoral education (chaplaincy training) or education in disaster response. HCCN is therefore developing training methods for individuals in this previously neglected area. We have established an advisory group of 23 chaplains with 10-20 years’ experience working with police, firefighters and EMS, who are creating low-cost ways of training chaplains to serve in emergency and disaster situations.

Military Chaplain Division
HCCN’s Military Chaplain Division supports chaplains who care for the spiritual needs of military personnel, veterans, and their families. Military chaplains provide counseling and support related to deployment, combat stress, marriage and family, and grief. The Division is collaborating with other military chaplain groups to develop a new formation process for military chaplains that offers mentoring, coaching, and expert navigation through the challenges at the intersection of the civilian and military worlds.

Conclusion
HCCN remains focused on helping patients, families, medical staff, and others find spiritual and emotional support and healing at times of greatest need. With our colleagues and supporters, we are creating a more compassionate health care system where whole-person care of body, mind, and spirit is available to all.

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