Atlantic Region

COHI Atlantic Region in Action

This article by Judy Yeaton was in the Maine Coast Now:

AUGUSTA — Last year, Norman Veilleux had to deal with something that every human being hopes never happens to them — chemotherapy. But the Augusta native didn’t wallow in self-pity while he was being treated for his cancer. Instead, he felt sorry for the patients he saw around him.

The second class of trained Community of Hope volunteers, pictured here with their instructors, graduated May 9. The volunteers standing are from left, Phyllis Hyde, Joseph Dressler, Rebecca Sommons, Mary Bailey, Elizabeth Grada and Norman Veilleux. Seated are the instructors, from left, Tom Longstaff, Ray Anderson, Bert Brewster and Joyce Stucki.

“I’ve always been very spiritual and after I went through cancer and spent time in the hospital, I saw a need. Many people had no visitors. No pastors even came around,” Veilleux said.

A member of Saint Augustine Church and a former seminary student and assistant chaplain in the military, Veilleux quickly added that with only three priests to cover the entire St. Michael Parish, there’s “no way they could get around” to everyone.

The answer to the dilemma Veilleux witnessed came in the form of his childhood friend, Julie Brawn. He and Brawn grew up together in the Franco-American community on Sand Hill and still live near each other in that area. They bumped into each other at MaineGeneral Medical Center while Veilleux was receiving chemotherapy and Brawn was visiting patients as a newly trained Community of Hope volunteer.

Community of Hope volunteers Norman Veilleux and Julie Brawn, from left, confer with Andrea Mills, a nurse in the chemotherapy unit at the HaroldAlfondCenter for Cancer Care in Augusta.

Brawn had taken the 14-week Community of Hope training course in the spring of 2007 so she could minister to patients in the hospital and at the HaroldAlfondCenter for Cancer Care. As a Eucharist minister in St. AugustineChurch, the mother of eight was experienced in ministering to her fellow parishioners. But her desire to provide pastoral care to cancer patients because she had lost a son to the disease compelled her to sign up for the course. When she learned of Veilleux’s concern, she encouraged him to enroll in the second class of volunteers to be trained.

“I told him, you better sign up,” Brawn said.

By the time the second class began this past February, Veilleux had completed chemotherapy, was feeling good and anxious to become a trained volunteer like Brawn. According to Bert Brewster, a MaineGeneral Medical Center chaplain and the Community of Hope training coordinator, he was glad to have Veilleux enroll.

“Last year, we really struggled for students to sign up for the second class,” Brewster said. “The first year, people signed up right away.”

That first class, of which Brawn was a member, had about a dozen students. Veilleux’s class, on the other hand, had only six students and not all of the people trained ended up volunteering at the hospital or cancer center. Some get the training so they can provide spiritual care at nursing homes, retirement communities, or to shut-ins and other parishioners in their church. Others who have been trained include nurses and hospice workers who wanted to be able to treat their patients’ spiritual needs along with their medical needs. For one student, the training inspired her to go to nursing school and for another it motivated him to enter a seminary.

So, with a new class starting in September, Brewster wants to recruit more people to become Community of Hope volunteers. He agrees with Veilleux that there’s a need that can’t be fully addressed by the hospital chaplains, community priests and pastors or even the lay pastors the hospital has always allowed to provide pastoral care to patients, Brewster said. It had also been a need for a long while before he and Ray Anderson, director of MaineGeneral’s pastoral care, implemented the program last year. Brewster credits Joyce Stucki of Winslow and a licensed minister in the American Baptist Churches with bringing the program to their attention.

“I was looking for something where a compassionate trained group of people could address the spiritual needs and provide a caring ministry to other people,” Stucki said.

She was first introduced to the Community of Hope program three years ago while she was in Massachusetts but it actually originated in 1994 in the Pastoral Care Department at St. Luke’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. Today, its model and materials are used for training in more than 13 states. It’s a structured, curriculum-based program that’s based on the Rule of Benedict, a sixth century monastic way of life named for Saint Benedict, Brewster explained. Although it sounds like it has a Catholic bent, the program is actually nondenominational and designed to train volunteers to minister to people of all beliefs and faiths. Since research has shown a significant relationship between patients’ spiritual well-being and positive outcomes in their mental and physical health, it’s a model that’s been embraced by the medical community, as well.

“Patients accept us right away. I think the administration considers us part of the team,” Stucki said. “We also help local pastors know when someone from their congregation is in the hospital. We also minister to families and to hospital staff.”

“The people you meet, you can tell they really appreciate you visiting,” Veilleux added. “We’re not pushing religion. People say, ‘it’s so nice of you to do this for people.’”

The three-hour, interactive Community of Hope classes are held on Saturday mornings for 14 weeks with a specific training schedule for each class. Potential students apply for enrollment in the course and, once accepted, are allowed to miss only two classes, Brewster said. Following graduation, newly trained volunteers continue to meet once a month with each other and previously trained volunteers in the Circle of Care, a Saturday morning support group directed by Stucki. Volunteers also participate in a yearly retreat.

“We become really close,” Stucki said.

Volunteers who want to work within the MaineGeneral Health system must also go through the medical center’s orientation program before they can begin seeing patients on their own.

A six-month checkup about a month before Veilleux completed his Community of Hope training showed that he was clear of cancer. Having graduated from his Community of Hope training on May 9, he is anxiously waiting to go through the hospital’s required orientation so he can begin to visit patients receiving chemotherapy at HaroldAlfondCenter for Cancer Care on his own. In the meantime, he does what he can while accompanying Brawn when she makes her rounds.

For more information about the Community of Hope, call 872-4072.