THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PLAN FOR OUTPATIENT HOSPITAL CARE AMONG BEREAVED PERSONS

In the fall of 1984 a bereavement project task force was selected from within the staff of the two hospitals of Montclair, New Jersey to study the need and make recommendations for a hospital based bereavement program through the Chaplain's Office. The multi-disciplinary group met regularly over a period of six months, and addressed the question: "How can the Montclair Community Hospital and The Mountainside Hospital Chaplain's Office best meet the needs of bereaved persons within the hospital's defined service area?"; The Chaplain's Office, in its effort to provide continuing pastoral care for persons who suffer loss, realizes the seriousness of this need. The crisis of grief is one in which the chaplain participates frequently. The increase in the hospital's number of sudden deaths and the lack of specifically directed care for those bereaved suggest a focus of bereavement care through the Chaplain's Office which would be unique to these hospitals and to their service area.; The process involved in developing a hospital based plan of care for supporting the bereaved is what this project is all about. The purpose of this project was to design such a plan. The focus of this project, then, is the process which gave birth to such a plan and not the grief process or implementation of the plan itself. The completed document does not seek to tell interested readers how to do bereavement care. Rather, it traces the process of developing the plan as well as the development and presentation of the plan itself. In addition, it offers through this process and the actual written proposal some tools which may be helpful in examining, evaluating, and determining directions for similar programs.; As a result of this project, The Hospital Ecumenical Chaplaincy Council, which serves The Mountainside Hospital and the Montclair Community Hospital, is now ready to sponsor a new and much needed hospital based bereavement program.