Spiritual Support:
It is in moments of great suffering that man, faced with illness, finds himself confronted with a great dilemma: how should he understand the illness of a loved one or his own illness and accept it? How to relieve the ailments of the body as much as those of the mind? How can one acquire this tranquility that is not found elsewhere than in faith, that unshakeable faith, an inescapable remedy for every trial ...
Within NDS, it is the chaplaincy who is in charge of helping the patient and his relatives, and to ensure, throughout this spiritual journey, the essential services to everyone in search of truth:
Chaplaincy is a priori a messenger of love, the infinite Love of God for all mankind,
It is proof of the union of God with man in the disease and in all circumstances,
It is a hope in the sacrament of anointing,
It witnesses the metamorphosis of human nature, puny and dubious, into an infallible strength and faith, thanks to the Eucharist,
It is the refuge, the safe place of every man who seeks to fight his uncertainties in the inexhaustible graces of the holy spirit.
Psychological Support:
It is necessary to mention that this spiritual support is accompanied by another support, namely Psychological Support, since health psychology has become an area of specialization in modern medical care, research, and education combining approaches psychosocial issues with medical prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.
Research shows that visits to physicians are generally accompanied by underlying psychological problems such as anxiety, stress, and depression. This, together with research demonstrating the link between thinking, behavior, and illness, helps to explain why health psychologists are increasingly called upon to provide a brief, targeted interventions to a patient with a wide range of medical disorders.
Our goals
Psychologists at NDS work to:
- promote adaptation/adjustment of the patient
- have a positive impact on the patient's length of stay in the hospital
- developing working relationships and collaborations with team members from all healthcare disciplines
Our services
We work to meet the patients need with various problems of all ages and medical conditions (maternity, pediatrics, oncology, dialysis, cardiology, internal medicine, bariatric surgery, etc.).
- coping with illness/disability, removing emotional barriers for proper self-management
- help patients/families adapt to chronic and terminal illness/disability
- assist patients/families when medical problems result in significant lifestyle changes
- evaluate candidates for bariatric surgical procedures
- help patients adapt to changes in their body image
- help patients with the necessary medical treatment
- promote a positive relationship between physician and patient
- assisting mourners
- respond to crises
- assess the risk of suicide
- personality assessment, cognitive and behavioral assessment
- understanding the experience of illness in the context of family and personal relationships
- help patients with behavioral, mood or anxiety disorders affecting their adaptation or adjustment to the disease
- create a meaning or purpose in the experience of suffering and sickness
- therapeutic education
- therapeutic play (children)
- family support
- stress management
We work with several multidisciplinary treatment teams and program development at the hospital
SNDS Volunteering Program
Mission and Objectives
SNDS is the Volunteering Program of the University Hospital Notre Dame des Secours. It represents the community service aspect of the Public Health in the society. SNDS gives the opportunity to be a model of corporate social responsibility and the chance to support the patients fighting cancer (children, teenagers and adults). It helps society to enter the world of health and hospitals. It also helps in awareness to cancer and raises the fight against it, which requires support from the entire community.
SNDS offers care to patients who are undergoing treatment at CHU NDS and help alleviate the anxieties and concerns our patients may have throughout their treatment in a dynamic way. The volunteers will be the life-blood of patients in their journey.
What we do
- Support our cancer patients with activities that give them a much-needed break from treatment
- Increase public awareness about cancer prevention and early detection
- Organize Fundraising activities to support the patients financially
Our Projects
- Daily (or) weekly activities to support patients in the hospital (active listening, teaching sessions for kids undergoing treatment, clown doctors activities, meetings for parents of children with cancer, etc.). Each volunteer is invited to fill a minimum of 3 hours per week in this section. The timing is defined in coordination with the Psychology Unit, responsible of the Volunteering Program.
- Specific Activities celebrating the International Day of Cancer: February 4.
- Multi-Disciplinary Activities during the year to promote public awareness and fundraising (Marathon, schools, universities, Gala Dinner, etc.).
How to join
- Fill the Volunteering form (contact [email protected] to receive the Form).
After you submit the application, the Psychology Unit will contact you.
- One Training and an orientation session are mandatory before any activity.
The topics of the training are related to the psychology of cancer, listening skills, clown doctors, etc.