Memorial Hospital’s Prayer and Presence offers unique volunteer opportunity

Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center is inviting individuals of the community to consider a very special and unique volunteer opportunity with a service called Prayer and Presence.

Prayer and Presence is a program that allows patients and their loved ones to use the time of suffering, illness and dying as a path to wholeness. Through Prayer and Presence, patients who are seriously ill or near death are given the opportunity to never be alone. A companion will be there to offer presence and prayer during this sacred time.

How does the Prayer and Presence Program work?

Once a patient is recognized as nearing the end of life by hospital staff or family, the hospital chaplain will check with any available family member to see if the Prayer and Presence service is desired.  At the family’s request, a Prayer and Presence Program Volunteer will be called in to sit with the patient.

In most cases, a schedule will be set up with the family to ensure the patient is never alone. Often, these visits are highly rewarding for the volunteer to be with an individual at such a sacred time as dying. As a volunteer, one must strive towards lifting spirits of the patient as well as those of the family. Volunteers are reminded to respect the patients’ beliefs, religion, individuality, and confidentiality.

The Prayer and Presence Program has been available to patients and their families since January 2011, following the recruitment and training of over 30 volunteers.  This program flows from our mission of allowing “Christ’s healing mission of compassion to empower us to be for others ….”  As a volunteer, one would serve as a companion to patients in need of prayer and another person’s presence.

Volunteers for the Prayer and Presence Program will be invited to attend an interview and preparation training that will consist of five formation sessions. These five sessions will cover a variety of topics that will equip the volunteer to feel comfortable in their role at the bedside of a seriously ill or dying patient. The interviews will be held the first week of September and the formation sessions will begin September 17.  Deadline to apply is August 31.

To find out more information about Prayer and Presence at Memorial Hospital, please contact Deb Boyles at 812-996-0504 ordboyles@mhhcc.org.