Promotion of Buddhist Clinical Chaplaincy in the Hospice Palliative Care in Taiwan

Promotion of Buddhist Clinical Chaplaincy in the Hospice Palliative Care in Taiwan※ Rong-Chi Chen, MD, PhD, FANA.※ President of Buddhist Lotus Hospice Care Foundation※ The caring domain of a physician is from birth to death, from “womb to tomb”. At the end of terminal care, physicians should maintain a religious and holistic spirit of “removal of suffering and provision of happiness” to their patients, as much as he could. Hospice palliative care was introduced into Taiwan in 1990 by the Christian Mackay Memorial Hospital. In 1994 the Buddhist Lotus Hospice Care Foundation (Lotus Foundation) was established. In 1995 a Palliative Care Unit was opened in the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH). Since more than 70% of the Taiwan people are Buddhist or are followers of Buddhism, Buddhist monastics are needed in the hospice care. However, there was no training or tradition of Buddhist monastics to participate in the medical care facilities in the past. Since 1998, Lotus Foundation initiated the training program of Buddhist monastics at the NTUH Palliative Unit. Prof. Ven. Huimin and Professor Ching-Yu Chen, MD were invited to lead the training program. It started the first effort of training Buddhist monastics as chaplains to participate in medical care in the Buddhist history. Many trainees are currently serving in many hospice palliative units as chaplains. In 2007, the trainees joined to establish the “Taiwan Clinical Buddhism Study Association”. Buddhist chaplains became an important team in Taiwan’s hospice care. We are trying to promote the“clinical Buddhist monastics training program” in the curriculum of the College of Buddhism in the university systems. To continue this Buddhist clinical chaplaincy training program, we welcome your support. Lotus Foundation (click) http://www.lotus.org.tw 佛教蓮花基金會。