Spirituality Gains Ground In Treatment Of Ill Veterans

Spirituality Gains Ground In Treatment Of Ill Veterans

By Mallika Rao
Religion News Service



BALTIMORE -- "I have dreams," said Vietnam veteran Raymond Ratajczak Jr., his mouth wet and tears on his face. "Dreams of recovery."

Ratajczak sat up in a cot at the Baltimore VA Medical Center in a room shared with three other patients. Every few minutes, his face wrinkled and he began to cry.

"What did we talk about earlier today, Raymond?" asked hospital chaplain Charles Thomas. Ratajczak looked up from his bed.

"So a man thinketh, so he be," Ratajczak said, paraphrasing proverbs.

Thomas smiled. "Think positive!"

Chaplains such as Thomas are one of the newest methods used by the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat the nation's veterans. Their job: to assess the spiritual and emotional health of such veterans as Ratajczak and report back to nurses and doctors, in hopes of developing a more "holistic" course of treatment.

Ratajczak, 63, has Stage IV cancer. He admits that although his cancer was detected years ago with regular checkups, "I neglected my health for years," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.

Since the creation of the White House office in 2001, VA hospitals have found ready cash to use for chaplains, spiritual assessments and spiritually based substance-abuse programs.

Chaplains at the Baltimore VA hospital do not promote any particular religion, said Thomas, a Protestant, but add a "spiritual dimension" that patients -- many of whom shy away from psychiatric treatment for fear of being labeled "crazy" -- often need.

Still, there are allegations of improper proselytizing in VA hospitals. David Miller, a 47-year-old Navy veteran, alleged that he has been denied treatment for kidney stones at the Iowa City VA Medical Center since 2005 after objecting to the hospital chaplain's aggressive bedside preaching. Miller, an orthodox Jew, alerted hospital staff continuously that he didn't want a chaplain visit, but the Protestant pastor continued to see him, he said, claiming Miller might die soon and would go to hell if he didn't accept Jesus Christ as his savior.
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http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfsep08/nf092208-3.htm

Chaplains are a great resource, provided they are really there to take care of the spiritual needs of those who want them there. For a Christian Chaplain to push his way into the room of someone who does not want them there, then challenge the faith the patient has, is way out of bounds. We are not supposed to be pushing faith or try to convert those in spiritual crisis, we are only supposed to take care of them as humans. If they don't want us there, we need to respect that or we do not do them any good at all. We could make a situation worse.