Hill Country Memorial has a team of chaplains, ordained as ministers and trained in providing counseling, support and spiritual guidance to peoples of all faiths, cultures, and backgrounds.
History
From its beginnings, HCM has affirmed the value of spirituality in Health Care, partnering with local faith leaders and providing a chapel for prayer and reflection in the hospital. The Hill Country Memorial Pastoral Care Department began as a partnership between the Hospital and the Gillespie County Ministerial Alliance in 2008, hiring a full-time chaplain and creating a department responsible for the spiritual health of patients, families, and staff at HCM. Since then, the program has grown to include to include a team of on-call chaplains. Local clergy and churches continue support and visitation to their parishioners.
Mission
We believe that everyone has a spiritual experience, that the human spirit needs attention and support as well as the body when facing sickness, change, crisis, or loss. Affirming the inherent worth, dignity, and experience of every person, our mission as chaplains is to facilitate opportunities for healing through ministries of hope and presence, so that everyone gains the spiritual strength they need to travel through their time at the hospital.
General information
Chaplains provide spiritual care to patients and their families 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Chaplains make visits as requested and round regularly to nursing units to be available to offer support. We provide compassion and open space for exploring a wide range of emotion and experience. We coordinate with the care team to ensure all patient and family needs are met. We encourage spiritual peace and strength through active listening, supportive dialogue, pastoral presence, sacramental support, grief and bereavement counseling, trauma and crisis assistance, spiritual/Biblical reading, discernment in transitions and decision-making, and prayer.
We assist patients and families in decision-making in formulating advance care plans and completing advance directives and in leading the Hospital Bio-ethics Committee, consulting physicians and families when care decisions are complex.
How to reach a chaplain
If you would like a visit from a chaplain, or you want to request a visit from your own clergy-person, ask your nurse or call the Pastoral Care Department between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., at (830) 990-6125 Monday through Friday. You may also email the Pastoral Care inbox at pastoralcare@hillcountrymemorial.org.
An on-call chaplain is available 24/7 for support and emergencies and can be reached through the hospital operator.
Team:
Tim Bowyer, Chaplain and Pastoral Care Supervisor
Bruce Brown, PRN Chaplain – Surgery
Paz Austin, PRN Chaplain
Tom Luck, PRN Chaplain
Ken Moore, PRN Chaplain
Ron Sutton, PRN Chaplain
Prayer
Please share your prayers in the book provided. Write a prayer for yourself or someone else. Daily, a chaplain spends time in prayer for requests made.
Reading
See the chapel for Bibles and support materials or make our chaplains aware of your interest and they will assist you. There are more Bibles, spiritual books and resources in the library at the Chaplain’s office, which can be made available to you.
Creating balance
Creating balance and focusing on all aspects of health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Mental health includes our emotional, physical and social well-being which affects how we think, feel and act.
Methodist Hospital Hill Country Chaplain’s are here for you, please call (830) 990-6125, read below an inspirational message from our Chaplain.
Community resources
NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. NAMI has locations throughout Central Texas and help connect you with information and resources on mental health.
MHA, Mental Health America, believes that mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points in the disease process, and we’re committed to addressing mental health B4Stage4.
If you feel like you are struggling with your mental health, visit mhascreening.org to check your symptoms.