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Articles by Doug Koop
Compassion the calling card for spiritual health practitioners
As the COVID-19 pandemic transformed workplaces throughout the province, spiritual health practitioners were among those responding to an ever-evolving array of needs in the health-care system. Everyone in hospitals or care homes was impacted by the pandemic — patients, clients, residents, families and staff. Many who accessed health-care services or worked in health care during this long and uncertain season experienced higher levels of stress than in the past. Emotions could be raw.
Vacillating on vaccine
A pharmacist technician fills the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at a vaccine clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette A weekend text from my manager put vaccines on my mind. As a spiritual health practitioner at a Winnipeg hospital, it told me I was eligible to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Because I had some misgivings, I decided to consult the younger generation, now in their mid-30s, for their wisdom.
Raising a glass to a good friend
My friend’s spirit left his body on a chilly afternoon in a lovely Winnipeg backyard in early autumn. He’d planned it that way. My friend — let’s call him Scott — and I met some six years ago. We have been helping each other and hanging out ever since. He was a good neighbour, and it’s been hard to say goodbye. Later that afternoon, I went to the local pub to order a single belt of Ardbeg 10 to drink to Scott’s memory. Other friends were there, but physical distancing was on my mind.
Faith Today Magazines Canada - Christian News Magazine Canada
Now is the time to be grateful for what we have, to appreciate beauty in small things, and to acknowledge the transitory nature of everything in our experience, including our very lives, writes Doug Koop. Covid-19 is complicating life for most of us, rendering ordinary life more difficult and reminding us of the privileges we normally enjoy and all-too-easily take for granted. I am among the privileged. Little of my professional work can be done from home.
Community clergy a casualty of COVID-19
Patient care in the hospital is sometimes provided by community clergy, pastors and authorized representatives of religious organizations who support people from their own spiritual circles. That isn’t happening these days as COVID-19 protocols continue to ban any visits except for closest kin in situations where the need for compassion is overwhelming. These restrictions can create any number of troubling consequences.
When the body hurts
By Doug Koop | January 20, 2020 Sliding down a riverbank on a winter Sunday afternoon is great fun. Playing casual (very casual) hockey on a homemade rink with a group of friends (some in skates, some in shoes) somehow links a middle-aged body to a great Canadian tradition. And just like the proverbial parent is apt to say, "it's a lot of fun until somebody gets hurt." It was fun. And nobody got hurt—at least, not while we were playing.
Faith Today Magazines Canada - Christian News Magazine Canada
When life is overflowing with poignant encounters, it’s okay that we can’t contain them all, writes Winnipeg hospital worker Doug Koop I spend a big part of my workweek in the company of patients on the acute and critical care wards of a big and busy downtown hospital. A lot of people cross my path, including families and an ever-evolving cast of medical professionals and support workers.
Faith Today Magazines Canada - Christian News Magazine Canada
What we learn as we walk with people in distress Listen to our podcast PHOTO: LIGHTPOET / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM A big part of my job as a spiritual health practitioner is to stay attuned to the suffering. Every day I encounter patients and family members enduring multiple types of personal distress – physical, emotional, spiritual. People who require hospital care almost inevitably find themselves struggling to come to terms with any of a variety of uncomfortable realities. In a word, they suffer.
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