What is pastoral care?

Thinking of our mission statement, which states that we care for people holistically, it’s recognising that there’s really a quartet to the human person. There’s a physical, psychological, the social and the spiritual. Every so often we’ll get a call from a doctor who says, “Look would you check on so and so because they’ve received bad news”.

Where do you fit into the organisation?

We sometimes say that we are the only people in the place that approach people without any set agenda or any task or deliberate purpose. The agenda is really is what’s happening for the person and we follow that. And it probably helps humanise the experience in that, you know, there’s so much around them that is intimidating, just because that’s the way it is. And, you know, something that happens, I think, that’s really helpful for a lot people is just allowing them to tell their story, and in the story telling comes the meaning.

How was 2007 for you?

Generally, for just our particular pastoral care team, it’s been business as usual. But one of the things that’s just happening is the overall change of the place. New hospitals being built and, as well as that, a mix of another... looking at mixing with another culture with Queensland Health specifically in relation to how we see mission and that whole spectrum, that’s been a significant change.

What initiatives sum up the Mission for you?

I have some connection with the group called Micah that’s in South Brisbane who contribute a lot to working with homeless people as well as other social justice issues. I mentioned to Peter Hill about that particular service, who was the mission director at the time, and he connected with Karen Rossiter who is the leading person, the Director, and out of that came this decision to support a full-time community nurse to work with the homeless service centre. It requires a whole understanding that when people are in those situations, probably one of the first things that happen is that they lose trust, and probably they become a bit shy about it and less confident about approaching mainstream services. Which makes having a person like Roslyn, with the link to this hospital, a very good thing. So when I think of the mission of the place that’s the one thing that stands out for me.