Chaplains care for the needs of the human spirit when faced with ill health, crisis, trauma, loss, difficult emotions, or existential questions. Our goal is to listen to what matters most to you during this time. Chaplains provide spiritual care and emotional support to persons of all backgrounds.

Chaplains work as members of the interdisciplinary care team to support the well-being of the whole person. Chaplains specialize in spiritual care, which may involve addressing spiritual and emotional needs, identifying resources of spiritual strength, and developing coping strategies. Chaplains enable persons of all backgrounds to connect with their spiritual, religious, relational, and community resources.

In addition to spiritual care conversations, we offer services that may include rituals, sacraments, communion, prayers, meditation, blessings, end-of-life and grief support, bereavement resources, and consultation with the interdisciplinary team on religious, ethical, or end-of-life considerations.

Chaplains also coordinate with local faith leaders and clergy of various religious backgrounds, such as a Priest, Rabbi, Imam, or Pastor. Let us know if we can assist in connecting you with your faith community.

When you or your loved ones:

• are worried about your own or your loved one’s condition
• feel disconnected, alone, or isolated
• feel disheartened, discouraged, or hopeless
• are struggling with the meaning of your illness
• receive difficult news
• face difficult decisions
• need spiritual encouragement
• want someone to pray with you
• need assistance maintaining a religious observance or tradition while in the hospital (e.g., dietary needs, fasting, Communion, etc.)
• feel disconnected from your faith community
• are grieving a loss
• need someone to listen

We are committed to building strong partnerships with Faith Leaders and Clergy in Howard County. Collaboration between faith leaders and chaplains is vital to supporting the well-being of hospitalized community members and their loved ones. Faith leaders are an essential member of patients’ support systems and part of the broader team caring for them. Therefore, we encourage faith leaders to provide spiritual care to those to whom they have a direct pastoral relationship or responsibility.

Our chaplaincy team strives to make it easy for faith leaders to visit and support their hospitalized community members at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center. Patients or their loved ones who are connected with their faith community are encouraged to share that information with our chaplaincy team to make a connection with their faith leaders during the period of hospitalization.

Please contact our Chaplains:

• To coordinate and expand care through the continuum of hospitalization
• To request spiritual care visits for your hospitalized community member (e.g., initial visits, follow-up visits, etc.)
• To ask for assistance or information while visiting at JHHCMC
• To say “Hi” when you are at JHHCMC
• To connect with and get to know our team and services
• To make sure you are on our Spiritual Care contact list for referrals and updates

Orientation to JHHCMC for Faith Leaders and Clergy
We invite you to meet our chaplains to learn more about our services and how to partner with us and receive orientation to the hospital. To schedule a convenient time for an in-person orientation to Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center, please call our office at 410-740-7898 or email [email protected].

Faith Community Partnerships
To learn more about Johns Hopkins Howard County’s existing partnerships with faith communities, visit the Journey to Better Health (J2BH) webpage.

Spiritual Care Volunteers support the professional Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy services at Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center by extending caring presence, empathetic listening, emotional and spiritual support to patients and their loved ones of diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds. Spiritual Care Volunteers work under the supervision of professional chaplaincy staff to provide more everyday supportive care as appropriate. For more information about volunteering at JHHCMC, please contact Volunteer Services at [email protected].

The Johns Hopkins Medicine System offers a CPE program accredited by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), Inc. The focus of learning in CPE is gaining new skills and tools for ministry while identifying particular gifts and goals for ministry. The group dynamics are supplemented by presentations from the Hopkins interdisciplinary team in order for CPE students to familiarize themselves with the health care environment, as well as lectures using behavioral sciences and theological reflection. CPE at Johns Hopkins is based upon adult learning theories that allow the student to direct the educational process. CPE students work in collaboration with their peer group, certified CPE educators and the staff chaplains to achieve their education goals.

To learn more about CPE at the Johns Hopkins Medicine System, please visit the Department of Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy website, or call the CPE Registrar at 410-550-7569.