DESCRIPTION:
The Reverend Zeena Regis is a Hospice Chaplain. The Reverend Doctor Melissa Sexton is a post-doctoral fellow in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Dr. Sexton is completing a practicum with the Interfaith Health Program as part of her fellowship; as part of that work, she is interviewing those with particular insights into the religious and spiritual dimensions of the COVID-19 outbreak and our responses to it.
In this interview, Reverend Regis discusses the challenges of staying present with people difficult times. As a chaplain, she works to value and respect her patients as they pray for a miracle as part of a clinical care team that often views such prayers as denial of reality. To do this, Zeena employs the following mnemonic: AMEN. A stands for “Affirm the patient’s belief.” M stands for “Meet the patient and their family where they are.” E stands for “Educate from your role as part of the clinical team.” N stands for “No matter what happens, God is with you every step of the way.”
The idea that God is with us is particularly powerful because God can seem so far away during difficult times. In a time of social distancing and stay-in-place directives, we have become aware of the value of presence because our old ways of experiencing presence with other human beings are not possible right now. Zeena discusses how she is coming to realize presence in this time is really about working with a patient to give them the space they need to work through the things they need to process. Presence is also about the role of the chaplain in offering support and caring for other members of the care team.
Finally, Zeena discusses the experience of grief, reflecting that grief is a process of re-constructing a new sense of understanding in the face of loss. The world has fundamentally changed and you have to change with it. For a time, the world just doesn’t feel safe. Zeena discusses how her role as a chaplain is to help people find a sense of safety again in light of the changed circumstances. As they work to re-establish that safety, many people have a lot of questions: Why is this happening? Why would God allow this? Zeena encourages people that all of their questions—including their pointed questions to God—are perfectly acceptable.