New Philadelphia News Across the Pastor’s Desk: Reaching Out
Over the years, here at New Philadelphia, the pastoral staff and I have followed a few simple rules, especially with regard to bereavement calls. If someone loses someone to death with whom they have lived, we try to contact them. This means that we contact people who lose a mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife, son or daughter. If we know that someone loses a grandparent or someone else with whom they once lived, we would contact them, too. However, we don’t ordinarily make bereavement calls on those who have lost grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, friends, etc., unless of course, they contact us, and express a need for a visit. The reason for drawing the line where we do—and we have done it at least as long as I have been pastor here— is because of the number of people who are members here. Most of our members have many family members outside the church, and if we expanded our pastoral services to include all of them we are no longer talking about 1000 members, but many thousands of members. Even now, it is a rare week that we do not make a bereavement contact— such as making a visit or attending a funeral, or going to a family visitation, and some weeks we make multiple bereavement calls. If we have missed calling on you—I apologize. It was an oversight, and we would like to correct it. Just let us know. We also have rules about visiting in hospitals. Due to the change in HIPPA regulations, it is now very difficult for us to visit non-members, except by invitation. Often, unless we have the person’s full name, the hospital staff will not even confirm their presence. That said, when people have family members who are ill, and do not have pastoral care, we are happy to see them, even in hospital, or hospice. Even so, they should know in advance that we have been asked to see them, and please be aware that hospitals permit only a person’s actual pastor to see them in ICU, or CVSU, or in some other restricted area of the hospital. I have instructed our staff that we should never fudge a relationship to gain
admittance to the restricted areas. It is a violation of trust at several levels. Along these same lines, HIPPA regulations forbid us from communicating information about people in hospital to other people, unless we have their expressed permission. Therefore, if you call and ask us to see a family member, please make sure that we have their permission to visit. Also make sure that we know whether or not we have permission to pass on information about them. Likewise, if you talk to Rachel or Donna, please make sure that we have your contact information. A member of the pastoral staff will certainly want to talk to the person making the request for a visit, so that we can go in with as much information as possible. Over the years we have published the first paragraph of this article many times over. The HIPPA regs are new. Do they complicate the caring ministry of our church? Yes, they do, but with your help, we can live with the regulations and continue to offer the same comfort with which God comforts us. The Pastor
Update your contact information by calling or emailing the church office: 336-765-2331 or rachel@newphilly.org donna@newphilly.org You may also complete the form on-line via our website: www.newphilly.org