DALLAS Hospital chaplains make house calls

As the population ages, the need for outreach chaplains will likely increase.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
DALLAS -- Beatriz Villegas' eyes, long clouded by cataracts, brighten when she speaks of her friend -- the chaplain she almost didn't invite into her home.
Now, she can't imagine life without the Rev. Jennifer Holder, one of three chaplains from Baylor University Medical Center's Geriatrics Chaplaincy Program.
Assisted by 15 volunteers, the chaplains provide spiritual care to about 250 senior citizens in the Dallas area, in their houses, at retirement homes, at rehabilitation centers.
The house calls and telephone calls mean a lot to folks easily forgotten. The chaplains and volunteers provide an ear, a shoulder, companionship and prayer.
"Part of this ministry is just showing up," the Rev. Ms. Holder said, driving to Villegas' home in Dallas. "They want someone who isn't in a hurry to get away. It's the listening and the prayer they crave. They have opened the door to empty their soul."
The Baylor program may be the only one in the United States in which hospital chaplains go out into the community, said the Rev. Andrew Weaver, director of research for HealthCare Chaplaincy, a center for pastoral care, education and research in New York.
As the population ages, the need will only increase, said the Rev. Mr. Weaver. "Outpatient work, I think, is the future for chaplains, because unless people are acutely ill, they don't stay in the hospital very long."
A few months ago, Villegas started feeling depressed and lonely. The cataracts in her 71-year-old eyes were affecting her work as a seamstress, and surgery was not yet an option. Her closest child lives in Wimberley, Texas.
First steps
Her doctor asked if she wanted to see a chaplain.
"I said no at first because I didn't want someone pushing their religion on me," said Villegas. "But I realized I needed to talk to someone. ... But if she got too pushy, I decided, I would not want her back."
Instead, she said, she found Ms. Holder to be kind, compassionate and genuinely interested in her.
"It's so easy as an elderly to feel lonely and to sit and feel sorry for yourself," said Villegas.
"I'd never been like that, and when I saw that in myself, and the medication for depression was making me sick, it was Jennifer who began to take me out of there."
Ms. Holder, an Episcopalian, helped her reconnect with the Catholic Church she left years ago, she said.
A recent study by Mr. Weaver's group found greater rates of loneliness and depression among elderly residents living in apartments than among the blind.
One in eight Americans is over 65, he noted. By 2030, that will rise to one in five. Roughly 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. By 2030, that will nearly triple, he said. And many times, the spouse left to care for an Alzheimer's patient experiences depression.
"If you have chaplains who are compassionate and sympathetic and give a hoot, you have every reason to believe that will be a positive intervention for a lot of people," Mr. Weaver said.
Baylor's program is paid for with private donations. In October, the poet Maya Angelou will give a lecture in Dallas to raise money for the program.
"Unless a lot of work is done in the churches, mosques and synagogues, I don't see any money to do it," Mr. Weaver said.
Though many places of worship do a good job of reaching out to the community, it's easy for seniors, who are often isolated, to fall through the cracks, said Dr. David O. Moberg, a professor emeritus at Marquette University who has written extensively about aging and spirituality.
"Those integrated with a congregation will be receiving help from the pastoral staff," he said. "But the difficulty comes when there is an illness or disability over a long period of time. People have a difficult time getting to church activities, and once out of sight, it's easy to be out of mind."
Many seniors are reluctant to ask for help, Moberg said. "They feel that's selfish."
Referrals
About 250 seniors have been referred into the Baylor program by physicians, social workers and family members. They are ministered to by the three participating chaplains -- Ms. Holder, the Rev. Judy Collins and the program's coordinator, the Rev. Mike Mullender.
"Ministry to older adults is like being aware of any culture," the Rev. Mr. Mullender said. "If you get locked into your own culture, you will not be able to understand where they're coming from and what their needs are."
The three chaplains visit with patients, in person or by phone, weekly -- or more frequently in the early stages of the relationship. The chaplains train volunteers to provide assistance, and once a volunteer has established a relationship with a patient, he or she continues the visitations.
Mr. Mullender said about 80 percent of the participants are now seen by the chaplains, with the other 20 percent in the hands of volunteers.
Volunteer Vicki McManus and Mary Burnett have known each other for three years. When the Rev. Ms. Collins introduced her to Burnett, 86, "I immediately took to her," the volunteer said.
"To think that Mary had nobody, no family, and I have 18 in my immediate family, was an incredible thing for me," she said. "It makes me feel like I'm doing what needs to be done for the Lord."
As McManus sat in the Plano, Texas, home of the woman some mistake for her mother, they kidded about their relationship.
McManus helps organize her friend's medicines. She fends off telephone solicitors. She brings meals on holidays, and has had the older woman over to her house.
And on the Fourth of July, she had to rush her to the hospital because of a respiratory illness.
"If I didn't have her, I don't know what would have happened," Burnett said. "I'd probably be in the bed, dead."