Why We Invest In Spiritual Health Donor support of Concordia Hospital’s Spiritual Health Chaplain Programs ensures that compassionate, dignified care extends beyond clinical treatment. Through the presence of trained chaplains, patients, families, and staff receive comfort, guidance, and hope during some of life’s most vulnerable moments.
Philanthropy makes it possible to care for the whole person—body, mind, and spirit —strengthening healing, resilience, and humanity within our hospital every day.
The Concordia Foundation has supported the program at Concordia Hospital and Concordia Place for over a decade because this is what our mission calls to do.
We are grateful for the support from our community, churches, faith-based organizations and donors and will continue with this ministry. Matthew 25:35–36 (Service & Compassion)
Inspired by Christ’s call to care for the sick and vulnerable, a legacy gift to Concordia Hospital’s Spiritual Health Chaplain Programs is a meaningful way to live out faith through service. Your gift ensures that compassion, prayer, and spiritual presence remain available to those in need, today and in the future.
Concordia Hospital’s Spiritual Health Chaplain Programs are delivered in accordance with the standards of the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC), (www.spiritualcare.ca) ensuring professional, ethical, and compassionate spiritual care.
Our chaplains are trained and supported through CASC-recognized standards, providing trusted spiritual care that is inclusive, accountable, and responsive to those we serve.
A Lasting Gift of Faith and Care A legacy or memorial gift to Concordia Hospital’s Spiritual Health Chaplain Programs helps ensure compassionate spiritual care for patients and families during times of illness and loss.
This ministry reflects a commitment to faith, dignity, and love of neighbour —today and for generations to come.
To donate please visit, www. concordiafoundation.ca.
Story Of Impact Michelle Barr
The Continuity of Caring
I have come to learn that supporting the human spirit has lasting effects. In a recent encounter with a long-time church couple, Henry and Carol – I rediscovered just how important supporting the human spirit is, and that our role as Spiritual Health Practitioners (SHP) makes a meaningful impact with those we serve – sometimes even without us knowing.
During my conversation with this couple, I shared my profession and place of work (Concordia Place - CP). Hearing this, Carol brightened up and shared that her mother had lived at CP many years ago before her passing. She remembered that it had been a good home for her during her later years. As she reminisced, tears welled up as she told me of when her mother had to be admitted to hospital due to health complications.
She recounted that the medical team had suggested her mother undergo surgery, a recommendation she struggled with, knowing that it was not something her mother would want at this stage of her life. She spoke of how grateful she was for the occasions when the SHP, provided a compassionate presence and listened empathetically during that time of crisis. Carol’s expressions of gratitude and tears, multiplied as she continued to think of her mother and as she recalled how the SHP advocated on behalf of her mother and family. In the end her mom’s wish was honored. This SHP had provided to her family, support that stood the test of time.
They continued to share their admiration for my profession and how much they value the work of all spiritual health practitioners. As the passion of how much the support had meant to her and her family was uttered with every word that she spoke, she closed our conversation by describing our role as ‘godsend’.’
For Henry and Carol, this experience took place 10-15 years ago. Yet, in that moment, the SHP whose heart had held their story, was all that mattered. They shared a blessing with me and encouraged me to continue the important and valuable work of providing spiritual support— something that they will never forget.
Michele – Spiritual Health Practitioner
Story Of Impact Korey Dyck
Stepping Into The Past Sometimes we don’t get to be there. Births, deaths, graduations and championship games are all life events that I’ve missed. We can’t get to everything. And life sometimes has a way of preventing us being with loved ones when they need us the most. Life moves on.
And trauma and tragedy, events families experience in hospital can prevent us from moving on.
We can get stuck, fixating on a time and place we couldn’t attend. We can be left wondering, “what was it like, who was there, what are the sounds and smells like of a place I can’t imagine”? One patient family at Concordia decided to fill in the gaps to their family story in order to move on.
The family was not allowed to visit during the hospitalization and death of their husband and father during the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Nelson family (not their real name) wanted to see for themselves where their loved one spent the last days of his life, away from the family and community he knew best.
One day in February, the Nelson family contacted the Spiritual Health office wondering if they could have a tour of the hospital. They explained their story and their need for the visit in order to heal from a loss they were still grieving. We planned the visit for April when ‘Raymond’s’ wife and daughter would be in the city from their home in Northern Manitoba.
Not knowing what to expect, I greeted Gloria and Connie at the front door. After a short visit, I walked them through the likely path Raymond would have experienced after arriving at the hospital. We visited the Urgent Care waiting room where he would have begun receiving treatment – the place where Gloria last held his hand.
We then walked the back hallway to N1North, where Raymond was moved to once he was stable. We walked past his room, and then sat in the back lounge and talked. As we sat not too far from the room that Raymond breathed his last breath, I listened with empathy and kindness, as Gloria recounted the husband and father that he was to the family.
After a while, we made our way to the Chapel, a place the family wanted to see. They sat, cried, talked, and joked – all forms of healthy release. They could now imagine what their husband and father saw, and smelled and heard before he died. The story was now complete. They were grateful for the experience, to see real people caring for real patients and to imagine Raymond, their husband and father receiving the same compassionate care.
Spiritual Health is Health. In 2003, the Province of Manitoba changed the definition of health to include ‘mind, body, and spirit’.
During Spiritual Health Awareness Week (Oct 19 – 25), we recognize and celebrate the work of Spiritual Health Practitioners and all hospital staff as they support the human spirit in making sense of their patients’ healing journeys.
Korey Dyck - Spiritual Health Practitioner
Story Of Impact Jennifer Choi
Compassion – It’s Powerful Medicine Everyone Can Share During the COVID-19 period, I met an elderly Asian woman in the hospital. Her neck and several parts of her spine were broken, and her body was held together with wires and machines. She couldn’t move her head or feed herself—someone had to place food in her mouth.
She told me she had applied for MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying). She had never married, had no family in Canada, and her only relative—an older sister—was overseas. With her body broken and no one to care for her except one church friend, she said she didn’t want to be a burden anymore and just wanted to go peacefully. She asked me to call her faith leader to share her decision.
When I made the call through the iPad, she tearfully told him about her MAID application. I could hear the faith leader’s reply and he strongly disapproved. She cried harder and asked me to end the call. Then she held my hand and said softly, “When I go through MAID, will you be there with me?”
Her question stunned me. I asked myself, Can I be there for something I don’t agree with? What would Jesus do for someone whose body and soul are this broken? Within seconds, I answered, “Yes, Grandma. I’ll be there with you. I’ll hold your hand and sing so you won’t be alone.” She smiled through her tears.
Through this experience, I came to a deeper reflection on the meaning and importance of spiritual health. Later, her MAID request was not approved, and her condition improved to the point that she was discharged. Watching her leave the hospital, I was profoundly grateful. I realized how deeply the work that we do in spiritual health can touch and comfort the souls of those who stand in the darkest and most painful moments of life—even at the edge of death.
Jenn – Spiritual Health Practitioner