Skip to main content

Spiritual Care Collaborative-Lofty Words Blowing in the Wind

The Spiritual Care Collaborative sounds all the right notes when it comes to promoting and advertising the SCC as new breakthrough in collaboration between pastoral care and counseling organizations. High ideals expressed on paper sound good and make a good sales pitch but unless accompanied by serious results on the ground amount to nothing more than lofty words blowing in the wind. Rather than creating harmony in the midst of the pastoral care and counseling movement the SCC sound a jarring note of discord tainted by an exclusive elitism. The SCC recently admitted(1) that it has no developed mechanism for including other participating organizations in the partnership of collaboration. So much then for lofty ideals and claims of Collaboration mere code words used as cover for darker motives of control and monopoly.

Note (1)

NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF THE CPSP COMMUNITY RE. RELATIONS TO THE SPIRITUAL CARE COLLABORATIVESeptember 3, 2008

Notice to Members of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy Community

From the Executive CommitteeRe: CPSP Relations with the Spiritual Care Collaborative

We in CPSP have made ourselves collegially available to the Spiritual Care Collaborative (SCC) since the SCC and its precursors began in 1996. John deVelder and Jim Gebhart have been in good faith, extensive, and ongoing communication with SCC leadership during the past twelve years. The results of years of collegial conversation have come to no resolution.The SCC has reported officially to John deVelder that it has developed no process for including other organizations in its membership. Thus, the SCC's claim to be a collaborative organization is to date only talk.

The SCC (and its precursors) was founded originally by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE). The data suggest that the ACPE purpose from the beginning was to establish a monopoly in clinical pastoral training under the aegis of ACPE, in a joint venture with the Association of Professional Chaplains (APC).

We in CPSP had hoped that the ACPE, allied with the APC, had abandoned the dream of monopoly. Apparently it has not. There can be no hope of collegial relations until the dream of monopoly is abandoned. For the time being we must consider our conversations with SCC to be fruitless.

CPSP will continue in its mission to promote with all its energy the training and certification of pastoral clinicians of several levels of expertise. We will continue to make ourselves available collegially to other organizations in the field. But we will also energetically resist any claims of monopoly from any other organization in our field of work.

Visit the Pastoral Report the online Journal of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy.
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

CMS Regulations Relating to Clinical Pastoral Education & Medicare Pass-Through Payments

There remains considerable confusion concerning which Clinical Pastoral Education training programs qualify to receive Medicare Payments. The leadership of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education has not acted in a responsible manner to clear up the misunderstanding; promoted by ACPE leaders; that only ACPE accredited Doe recognized programs qualify for such payments. Clinical Pastoral Education training programs accredited by The College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy also qualify for such payments. Medicare officials do not support the ACPE only claim. We quote a response provided from the Medicare office: “The regulations cite the ACPE as an example of a national professional organization that would be sufficient as the accrediting body. However, the regulation at section 413.85(e) also specifically state that the accrediting bodies are “not limited to” the cited organizations. While programs that are accredited by the ACPE meet CMS definition of an Approved Nur...
Read more

Supervisor In Training Forum

David Fleenor has created an online discussion forum for Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisors-in-Training. The forum provides an opportunity to discuss all issues related to the process of becoming a CPE Supervisor. David suggests the forum will a venue to discuss issues of training, theory papers, committee meetings, theology, disappointments, and celebrations. The forum is limited to current supervisors in training and those that have been out of training for up to two years whether or not their training resulted in certification. The forum is open to members of the College of Pastoral Supervision & Psychotherapy as well as those in the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. For more information about the forum visit the link which follows: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CPESITS/ You may also contact David Fleenor at: The Rev. David W. Fleenor 1 East 29th Street New York, NY 10016 By Telephone: 646.942.0623
Read more
  THE CHAPLAINS'​ NOTES IN PATIENT CHARTS -- BY RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE   A very useful study was reported in the journal  Palliative and Supportive Care in May, 2016, entitled "Documenting presence: A descriptive study of chaplain notes in the intensive care unit." The research was completed in September, 2015. The authors of the report were Brittany M. Lee, B.S.; Farr A. Curlin, M.D.; and Philip J. Choi, M.D. The setting of the research was Duke University Hospital, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, in Durham, North Carolina. The study was done with input from the Director of Pastoral Services, Jim Rawlings. The researchers proposed that the recent emphasis on evidence-based practice may be leading chaplains to the use of a reduced, mechanical language insufficient for illuminating patients' individual stories. Whatever the cause may be, it is clear that the chaplains in this study are at sea on the matter of what should be appropriat...
Read more