Chaplain provides comfort during times of loss

By GINGER MIKKELSEN

VIEW STAFF WRITER

Catholic Chaplain Charlotte Leas, bereavement coordinator at Bunkers Mortuary, provides spiritual counseling and advice for families struck by the death of a loved one.

Leas' contribution to the community doesn't stop at the walls and grounds of Bunkers. She is also a member of the North Las Vegas Rotary Club, the Clark County Ministerial Association and the Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policies. Leas' most significant contribution to the local community is the founding of the Clinical Pastoral Education Consortium.

Nathan Adelson Hospice recently awarded Leas its Pastoral Care Giver of the Year Award. The annual selection rewards local spiritual caregivers for dedication to patients, family members and the community.

When Leas came to Las Vegas six years ago, there was no local program to train clergy and members of the community to provide spiritual guidance in a hospital, nursing home or hospice. Potential clinical pastors had to travel to California or Arizona to take certification classes.

Leas decided that had to change. She banded together with Jerry Blankenship, the head Chaplain at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, and together they established the Clinical Pastoral Education Consortium. Students in the local training program receive instruction from certified trainers who travel to Las Vegas once a month to teach. The program is in its second year. In August, the program presented its first graduation with certification.

Leas said while being a chaplain or clinical pastor sounds like something only a priest or ordained sister would do, people from all walks of life choose the occupation. Some of the students who have participated in the program are ordained members of the clergy, but others are fathers, mothers or wives.

Leas is a mother of seven. Once her children were grown, she went back to school at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., to earn her degree in ministry.

Leas is a member of the Christ the King Catholic Parish in Las Vegas, but clinical pastors can be any religion.

Blankenship said people often get the impression a chaplain must be a Catholic and a priest because that's the way the occupation is portrayed in movies and on television. People think of Father Mulcahy from the television show M.A.S.H. and make assumptions.

In reality, a clinical pastor can be Protestant, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Catholic or Mormon. A clinical pastor can provide comfort, advice and can help patients and family members pray. They can also provide contacts to local clergy members, so that people can talk to a spiritual leader from their own faith. Leas said in an emergency she can do baptisms, but she can not provide the Catholic last rights. Only an ordained Catholic clergy member can do that.

Blankenship said Southern Nevada could use many more chaplains and clinical pastors. He said only Sunrise Hospital and St. Rose Dominican Hospital employ full-time chaplains. Other local hospitals use volunteers, students and local volunteer clergy. Blankenship said he would like to see every hospital employ a full-time chaplain.

"We have lots of folks who don't have a religious home," Blankenship said. He added that over half of the patients he sees don't attend a local church or are visitors with no local connection. Many people are new to the community and others are not active in their faiths, but when an illness or death occurs, they still need religious support.

Sister Pauline Dibb, the director of spiritual care services at St. Rose, is also a member of the Clinical Pastoral Education Consortium. Sister Dibb said she thinks the program is important since she sees the need for clinical pastoral caregivers every day.

"People seem very anxious to receive the services of a spiritual caregiver. It prepares an individual to be hospitalized," Dibb said.

Students who enter the certification program must have already completed a degree in theology. The program takes 1600 hours of training, 300 of which must be supervised, hands-on training in a clinical setting like a hospital. The program is still small, with only five or six students each session.

For more information, call Jerry Blankenship at Sunrise Hospital, 731-8069; Charlotte Leas at Bunkers Mortuary, 385-1441; or Sister Pauline Dibb at Saint Rose Hospital, 564-4570.