Clinical Buddhist Chaplains, once they have completed training, provide bedside care to terminally ill patients, work to resolve patients’ spiritual sufferings, promote their spiritual status and reduce their death fears.
In the article, Dr Chien-An Yao, Secretary General of Taiwan Academy of Hospice Palliative Medicine, explains: “While Western hospice care, based on the life structure of the body, mind and soul as conceived of in Christianity, focuses on the spiritual care of the patient, Buddhists may concentrate on the four establishments of mindfulness regarding the body, feelings, states of mind and phenomena, or focus on the life structure of the body, mind and wisdom.”
The Hospice and Palliative Care Unit of the National Taiwan University Hospital launched a training programme for Clinical Buddhist Chaplains in 2000 – there are now 35 qualified CBCs working in 39 units across 13 areas of Taiwan.
Leave a Reply