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School of Public HealthPastoral Care in the School of Public HealthBachelor of Pastoral Care Leaflet Pastoral Care and Health CareA new graduate entry program now offers training in pastoral care in combination with the public health stream of the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree. The intention of this program is to put spirituality explicitly on the agenda of our healthcare curriculum; to ensure that discussions of spirituality are not separated from people’s experience of themselves and their relationships and their environment; and to expose these discussions to the critical scrutiny of a range of academic and practice disciplines. In recent years the spiritual dimension of health has been given renewed attention, as a search of health care databases or web sites will quickly verify. This spiritual dimension of course incorporates the variety of religious beliefs and practices people may follow, but is by no means limited to these. Rather, spirituality is a term describing the many and varied ways in which people create meaning in their lives and occupy their place in the world. We’ve chosen to approach the topic of spirituality through the discipline of pastoral care. In one sense this is a calculated risk, because “pastoral care” has a range of meanings, from traditional church-based religious activities through to school-based personal care and development programs, and it can elicit a wide range of responses, according to people’s prior experience. There are however two main reasons for making this choice. The first is that pastoral care is already well-established in health care - in acute care settings, aged care, palliative care, and increasingly in community agencies. - and, following contemporary social trends, pastoral care workers in these contexts attend to spirituality in the broad sense, not merely to religious expressions of spirituality. The second reason is that – as outlined below - pastoral care is a holistic perspective connecting physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of experience. In pastoral approaches, unlike some clinical approaches, spiritual care cannot easily be separated off as another specialty that strives for autonomy and differentiation from other aspects of care. What is Pastoral Care?Pastoral care is a person-centred, holistic approach to care that complements the care offered by other helping disciplines while paying particular attention to spiritual care. The focus of pastoral care is upon the healing, guiding, supporting, reconciling, nurturing, liberating, and empowering of people in whatever situation they find themselves. Pastoral care workers, through skilled companionship, provide people with support not only to confront particular situations, but also to explore the possibilities for personal and spiritual growth present within them. In the past, pastoral care operated within the religious framework that was shared by the majority of members of western society. Today, while a religious approach is still acceptable to some, many others will resist religious language and ritual, but welcome the opportunity to discuss matters of ultimate concern with a worker they have learned to trust. Why a Public Health Approach?Public health takes a comprehensive view that includes social and cultural aspects of health and illness. Public health has not however always made explicit the spiritual aspects of care implicit within this view. Pastoral care has been subject to the opposite critique: it has often been overly concerned with spiritual issues but not sufficiently concerned with the context in which they arise. The new program offers the best of both worlds. Physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of health are all addressed within it. Graduates of the program will be genuinely equipped to take a holistic approach to care. A pastoral care qualification will enhance work in your current field of activity. It will also equip graduates to practice as pastoral care workers in the fields of community health, chronic illness, disability or palliative care. In summary, pastoral care at La Trobe University is:
What Programs do we Offer?The primary program is a graduate entry Bachelor of Pastoral Care degree. This two-year full time (or equivalent part-time) program includes units in philosophy, public health, and religious studies as well as several pastoral care offerings developed specifically for the program. It also incorporates a major field placement. See course outline. All applicants for the Bachelor of Pastoral Care need to submit the Supplementary Information Form. The course is designed for anyone with a genuine interest in the resilience of the human spirit, in the ways people make meaning in the midst of health crises and learn to transcend the limits disability or illness might otherwise impose upon their lives. It does not assume prior religious knowledge or commitment: students who have no religious beliefs, and students who hold such beliefs, are equally welcome. Postgraduate ProgramsA postgraduate qualification of particular interest to current pastoral care workers or health professionals interested in pursuing pastoral approaches in palliative care is the Graduate Certificate in Health Promoting Palliative Care. Pastoral care interests can also be developed in the corresponding Postgraduate Diploma. Research degrees offered through the School can be taken in pastoral care or spirituality. Pastoral Care WorkersPastoral care workers provide person-centred care that takes particular account of the spiritual needs and possibilities arising from people’s experience of life-threatening illness and the changes this creates in their relationships with themselves, other people, and their environment. Pastoral care workers cooperate with practitioners of other caring disciplines in developing holistic approaches to care. Their contribution is made at three levels:
Key roles of pastoral care workers include the capacity to:
Consequently pastoral care workers are expected to have knowledge concerning:
Their skills include the ability to:
Professional AssociationsThere is at present no Australian peak body representing pastoral care workers in general. Professional associations in Australia for specific groups of pastoral care practitioners include the Australian Health and Welfare Chaplains Association (AHWCA), the Association for Supervised Pastoral Education in Australia (ASPEA) and the Australian Association of Spiritual Care and Pastoral Counselling. In the United Kingdom, pastoral and spiritual care practitioners contribute to an expert area within the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. Pastoral care and counselling organizations in a number of countries participate in the international council of pastoral care and counselling, a body which coordinates the offering of a four-yearly international congress. See http://www.icpcc.net/. The next such Congress will be held in Poland in August 2007. Contact DetailsCourse Coordinator Dr Bruce Rumbold Administration (for Bachelor of Pastoral Care) Bhavani Singh Administration (for Postgraduate in Palliative Care) contact the Postgraduate Team Content Approved by: Course Coordinator
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