Our Story

HISTORY

Hospice chaplaincy began as an idea in December 2014 to provide free resources to help hospice chaplains to become effective in their work of providing quality spiritual care for the hospice patients under their care.

During that time, there were no available free resources for hospice chaplains to fine-tune their graft. Our founder, Dr. Saul Ebema who is a passionate end of life care advocate wanted to have a space where hospice chaplains can connect and have access to free quality resources to advanced the practice of spiritual care at the end of life.

He had just finished writing his doctoral dissertation on “Meaning making in the Final stages of life.” Therefore, he decided to post some of his research on this site so people can enjoy it freely. He was against establishing a pay per view model or selling memberships for a members only site because that would limit the number of people who would have access to this quality resource and shut out many hospice chaplains and other people who might be interested in the field of spiritual care at the end of life.

He then mobilized a group of psychosocial and psycho-spiritual end of life researchers and writers and encouraged them to volunteer their time and research work so people could have access to those resources free on this site.

Since launching this site on June 2nd 2015, our work has grown organically in providing quality research and information on end of life care. That June, we only reached 2 people. In July, that number increased to 93 and our outreach continued to grow from there. Many people are discovering this site every day and are grateful they found us.

“As a brand spanking new hospice Chaplain, i am so very glad to have found this page”. Chris

“Six months into my new role as a hospice chaplain, I’ve found some really helpful information on this site.” Jason Bennett

“Thank you so much for providing this website. I was becoming discourage as a new hospice chaplain in the field…” Derrick Hall

 “I have recently been promoted to Chaplain Supervisor, having served as a chaplain with this organization for 17 years.  There are 15 chaplains on staff, with an average daily census of 725.  Our chaplains serve hospice patients in in-patient care centers, homes, long term care facilities and patients transitioning from hospital to any of these locations or who are too frail to be moved.  In the past, though we have a common template to use for spiritual assessments and visits, we did not have a common tool used to capture this documentation.  Several months ago I began piloting the DAROP model with our chaplains and it has now been adopted by the entire chaplain team and is soon to be adopted for use by our social workers.  We have seen it greatly improve the focus and meaningful ministry of our visits in chaplaincy, as well as increase professionalism and give us the means to speak to the difference between a patient who is chronically ill vs. terminally ill.  Thank you so much”. Patty Daum

 So far, our work has impacted the lives and ministries of 48,536 people who have come to hospice chaplaincy for resources, guidance, mentorship and training to be effective in providing spiritual care at the end of life. We set the standard for hospice chaplain documentation, for initial visit assessments and a standard for hospice chaplain competency.

In the last two years, we have developed the cultural momentum and organizational infrastructure to begin to scale to the next level. Scaling, for us, is about going deeper and not just bigger. To go deeper, we started clergy training. We’ve added the Hospice Chaplaincy Institute to give a solid foundational work for spiritual care in a hospice context and the hospice chaplaincy show a podcast to educate the public on the psychosocial and psych-spiritual aspects of end of life care.

Now Hospice Chaplaincy has become a national nonprofit organization committed to promoting excellence in spiritual care at the end of life. Our mission is to advance research initiatives that promote a better understanding of the psychosocial and psycho-spiritual aspects of end of life care. We are dedicated to providing patient advocacy, support and education services to individuals, clergy and medical professionals resulting in improvements in providing quality spiritual care at the end of life.

Our Mission

To advance the practice of spiritual care in the postmodern world through evidence based theories, education and research. We are committed to the delivery of quality spiritual care at the end of life.

Our Vision

To Educate the public on end of life care.

Our Values

1. Seeking best practices
2. Promoting Diversity
3. Promoting good ethical practices
4. Establishing protocols that improve spiritual care outcomes and  satisfaction

Hospice Chaplaincy Leadership

Dr. Saul Ebema, President: Saul has 14 years of hospice ministry  experience. He is passionate about spiritual care at the end of life. He is an obsessive end of life researcher and educator. He also co-hosts “The Hospice Chaplaincy Show” a podcast  about the psychosocial and psycho-spiritual aspects of end of life care. Saul got his bachelor’s in Theology from the Baptist Convention College in Soweto South Africa. From there, he got a presidential scholarship at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Illinois to study for his MDiv. After graduating his MDiv in 2008, he continued to get his Doctorate in Ministry from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2015. His emphasis was  on “Meaning making in the final stages of life.”

Dr. Gary Johnson, Project Director: A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. Johnson received his undergrad at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He Completed his Doctorate in Ministry from United Theological Seminary. 

John D. Beck, Board Member: Joined the board of Hospice Chaplaincy in 2019. He graduated from the University of Northern Colorado with a BA in Psychology. 

Kimberly Burgess, Board Member: Dr. Burgess is a licensed clinical psychologist and an End of Life Researcher. Previously, Dr. Burgess completed her clinical internship in geropsychology at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System, and she earned her doctorate shortly after that in both Clinical and Aging and Developmental Psychology. 

Our address is;

Hospice Chaplaincy

P.O BOX 1186, Hines, IL 60141

For any questions, email us at info@hospicechaplaincy.com Or 1 (888) 503 5260

You can also contact us here;