Spiritual Care
The Spiritual Care Department at Blythedale is dedicated to addressing the diverse spiritual, emotional, and cultural needs of our patients, families, and staff as they navigate the stress and challenges of hospitalization.
Contact information
Whitney Wilkerson, Spiritual Care Practitioner
- (914) 831-3026
About Our Department
The Spiritual Care Department at Blythedale is dedicated to addressing the diverse spiritual, emotional, and cultural needs of our patients, families, and staff. Our Spiritual Care Practitioners (chaplains) offer compassionate support to individuals of all faiths, as well as those without a faith, as they navigate the stress and challenges of hospitalization. They are able to help you and your child navigate spiritual struggles and integrate spiritual care into the overall treatment plan.
Our Services
We offer a variety of support and services including:
- Compassionate listening and a nonjudgmental presence
- Prayer for healing, hope, reconciliation, or other spiritual needs
- Bereavement support
- Pre-procedure support and assistance during family meetings
- Decision-making support and consultation on religious, cultural, and ethical issues
- Support for making difficult decisions
- Guidance with spiritual questioning and issues of faith and meaning-making
- Connections to outside clergy on behalf of families
- Support for religious holidays and other observances
Our Meditation Room is located in room #1228 on the first floor near the Social Work offices. This room provides a quiet and reflective space where all are welcome to pray, reflect and meditate.
We have a Bikur Cholim room, where kosher meals and snacks are available as well as Shabbos provisions. The Bikur Cholim room is located on the second floor in room #2232.
There are a variety of ways to support our Spiritual Care outreach:
- Supporting our celebrations of religious and cultural holidays within the Hospital
- Sponsoring our “Community Cafe” 1x a month
- Leading prayers, rituals, and sacraments (clergy only)
- Donating and/or reading spiritually based books to patients
- Assisting with administrative tasks and special projects
For more information on these opportunities, please contact Whitney Wilkerson at 914-831-3026 or wwilkerson@blythedale.org.
The items on our Spiritual Wish List help our department grow our resources and programming. Click here to visit our Spiritual Care Wish List Registry. Items on this wish list are needed on an ongoing basis and the list is updated regularly.
We are currently looking for partners for funding support for the following projects:
- Mediation room enhancements: In a stressful healthcare environment, our Meditation Room provides a refuge for patients, families and staff. A calm and reflective space, the Meditation Room is intentionally designed to be inclusive, welcoming people of all faiths as well as those who identify as non-religious.
- Conference Fees: Conferences offer an opportunity for our Spiritual Care team to develop additional skills and learn from their colleagues in a collegial environment. We would like to attend both the Pediatric Chaplain’s Network annual conference in Atlanta and the Association of Professional Chaplains annual conference in Minneapolis.
- C.A.L.M. - Caring for All Layers of Me: C.A.L.M. provides comfort, solace, and support to patients and caregivers during their stay by providing an array of sacred objects, literature, and resources representing a diverse set of emotional and spiritual needs. The items are provided free of charge to our patients and families to nurture well-being, encourage moments of reflection, and support individuals in connecting with that which gives them a sense of strength.
- Code Lavender: Code Lavender is a crisis intervention tool used to support staff during stressful events. Staff can call for a Code Lavender when emotional distress or trauma occurs that could threaten unit stability, personal emotional equilibrium, or professional functioning. When called, the Code Lavender team, led by the Spiritual Care department, responds, offering a purposeful physical presence, individual or team support, complementary therapies, prayer, and other affectively based interventions. Code Lavender uses evidence-based interventions to help staff meet their immediate responsibilities and lay the foundation for more lasting solutions.
For more information on these opportunities, please contact Whitney Wilkerson at 914-831-3026 or wwilkerson@blythedale.org.
