Hospitals urged to care for staff affected by mergers, downsizing

Published: 2005-05-23

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The current mergers, downsizings and sometimes sales of Catholic health care institutions taking place across the United States bring a need for pastoral care of their staff members whose lives are disrupted by the changes, a group of administrators of Catholic hospitals was told May 19. Gregory Kirsch, vice president for mission at Little Company of Mary Healthcare in Torrance, Calif., said people who were losing their jobs needed help in dealing with anger, grief, depression and a sense of abandonment. People connected with the religious orders that originally established the hospitals often had the additional problem of feeling an entitlement to their place in them, he said. Those who did not find their jobs eliminated could still feel anger about what was happening to their colleagues and to the institution, anxiety about what might happen to them in the future, and sometimes "survivor guilt," he said.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .