Spiritual Care Providers from the Department of Spiritual Care are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at Harborview Medical Center.
Our spiritual care providers provide emotional and spiritual support with a diverse population of patients, family members, friends, and staff regardless of their religious affiliation / spiritual preferences.
The mission of Harborview’s Department of Spiritual Care is to provide high quality, cross-culturally sensitive spiritual care to patients, families and staff of Harborview Medical Center and to provide a program of professional education to spiritual practitioners/clergy, theological students, and qualified lay people in the hospital and the larger community which the Medical Center serves.
We can serve by:
- Listening
- Offering support during times of crisis, loss, injury or illness
- Prayer
- Providing sacraments or rituals such as baptism, communion, blessing, anointing, viaticum
- Contacting local clergy / spiritual practitioners of various faiths / spiritual preferences
When notified, our Spiritual Care Providers respond to life-threatening emergencies in the Emergency Department, Critical Care Units, and Acute Inpatient Services.
Emergency requests for patients, families, and loved ones when a patient’s:
- death is imminent or has just occurred
- medical condition has suddenly worsened
- terminal illness has been diagnosed
- also for patients, families, and loved ones who will be given information that may be difficult to hear and who need extra emotional and spiritual support.
Non-emergency requests when patients, families, loved ones, and staff express:
- isolation and/or loneliness
- despair and questioning meaning of own life
- guilt, directly or indirectly, regarding past or present life experiences
- doubt, suspicion, and anger at God, the church, or religion
- challenges from a patient’s illness or injury that will necessitate a change in way of life
- religious / spiritual questions
- ethical or moral issues that must be discussed
Spiritual Care Providers also offer:
- ritual (anointing, communion, baptism, viaticum, blessings, prayers, and in special circumstances, memorials, funerals, and weddings)
- Spiritual Care consults
- Variety of reference materials
- List of local religious / spiritual communities
- Resources on many different faith traditions / spiritual preferences
Please call the hospital operator at (206) 744-3000 and ask them to page the on-call spiritual care provider. Patients may also ask their nurse to request a visit for them from Spiritual Care.