Spiritual Care

At Cottage Health, we are sensitive to the essential role faith, spiritual life, prayer and meditation play in the healing process. The Department of Spiritual Care provides spiritual and religious support for patients and families. Our spiritual care team includes professional chaplains, on-call clergy, and Spiritual Care volunteers from various faiths. Eucharistic ministry is available for Catholic patients on a daily basis. We welcome visits from outside clergy.

Our Goals

At Cottage Health, our spiritual care team seeks to:

• Promote spiritual care for each patient with compassion and dignity.
• Provide pastoral and sacramental ministry for patients, their families and hospital staff.
• Strengthen Cottage Health’s bond with local faith communities.
• Be a resource for patients and families making difficult treatment decisions.
• Encourage educational outreach to the greater Santa Barbara area, addressing spiritual, pastoral and ethical aspects of health care.

Spiritual Care Services

Our chaplains are available seven days a week, 24 hours a day to provide spiritual and emotional support for patients and families. Chaplains can help them address illness, treatment decisions, the healing process, and end of life events. 

• We provide pastoral and sacramental ministry for patients and their families.
• We can notify a patient's local pastor, rabbi or religious representative. 
• We can assist with advance directives.
• We provide educational resources on spiritual care, lay visitation and bioethical decision-making for local faith communities. 
• We offer a network of bereavement support services at Cottage Health facilities and in the local community.

Team members can provide these spiritual support services:

• Crisis intervention
• Grief and loss support
• Exploration of spiritual concerns
• Requests for prayer
• 24-hour critical/emergency support (available through the operator)
• Spiritual and scriptural reading material
• Meditation videos (available on the patient education channel)
• Requests for sacramental ministries provided by Catholic priests, Protestant Ministers, Rabbis, Imams, Buddhist monks, Hindu priests, or Native American Shaman.

Spiritual Care Special Programs 

• The Cottage Health team also provides:
• Support for patients and families receiving palliative care services
• Training for lay visitors from local congregations.
• Consultations on spirituality and bioethics.
• Hospital interfaith memorial services.
• Services to commemorate religious holidays.
• Bereavement support. 
• Counseling on organ and tissue donation.
• Practice of “Healing Touch.”

Meditation Room at Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital

The meditation room is a quiet area for prayer and reflection. Patients are encouraged to advise their physician, case manager or other caregiver of their spiritual needs. Call Ext. 58386 or 805-569-8386.