Special Care for the Spirit Is Good Medicine, Too

01.01.2012

We're not there to proselytize. We're there to support, to care. It's not something we force on people.

-Mike Flynn, volunteer, Stanford Spiritual Care Service

Cindy Flynn's stay at Stanford included visits from the hospital's Spiritual Care Service team.

The Stanford Hospital Spiritual Care Service program includes more than 200 volunteers in addition to its regular staff and chaplains.

We train them to be respectful, to be reverent, to be gentle in every way so patients can tell us anything they want, how they want, or they can go silent. We're there for them in that moment.

-Father John Hester, Associate Director, Stanford Spiritual Care Service

I don't know how to explain it, but it does make a difference. It's just having somebody there and talking to you as a person, and not just a patient.

-Cindy Flynn, patient, Stanford Hospital & Clinics
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