New York State Chaplain Task Force
What is the mission of the Chaplain Task Force?
Our mission is to maintain, educate, and dispatch highly skilled interfaith, spiritual care first responders who can provide quality faith, spiritual, and emotional support services. We provide basic spiritual and emotional services in times of crisis. I like to say, you don’t have to be a nurse to administer CPR but you can be trained to do it. Our members are all trained to help spiritually and emotionally. Our data is based on zipcodes and faith groups so when a call comes in for our services, we can search for a person of a specific faith who can offer help to the caller. If a general call for our service comes in, we can dispatch anyone of any faith who is trained and available in that zipcode. Our dispatch service is available 24/7.
What is the task force doing in response to COVID-19?
One thing we are providing is spiritual support services where we are allowed to and where we have been requested. One challenge is hospitals are not allowing outside people to come in. Fortunately, some hospitals have inhouse chaplains and have been trained by us. We work with the New York Fraternal Order of Police and Blue Lives NYC and have been tending to law enforcement people who need to talk and need help. We have officiated 119 funerals so far and probably about 15 virtual memorial services. We train our chaplains not simply to provide spiritual care but to wear multiple hats by offering them CPR training and FEMA training. We provide volunteers to help out at food pantries where they can also help those who need to talk. We have been doing food deliveries, anywhere from 300 to 500 per day. The basis of our organization is to provide spiritual care but through additional training, to be of service in multiple ways. It’s not just spiritual support but emotional support. We can provide service both to the religious world as well as to the secular world.
Why have you partnered with the World Cares Center and can you describe what you are doing with them?
First words that come to mind about the World Cares Center is training and education. We are constantly trying to better our training and our volunteers. WCC has specialized training, some which we already do together. What I love about WCC is their vast array of additional training and education in specific areas and specialties in terms of disaster care and if we can work together, we can provide our volunteers additional training and education. My hope is that our volunteers can be of service by adding the spiritual component to WCC’s work. We are trying to do more training in terms of emotional and spiritual services to add to WCC’s training and to let others have access to them and benefit from them.
What kind of need and responses have you seen in the communities you are helping?
There are a couple of areas we have been hitting. We are making sure we are there for first responders. We forget about them having to deal with their duties and with their own families. What we have been able to see is that people are suffering on different levels. People who are working from paycheck to paycheck are suffering at a different level than those who might have a nest egg. Many people, especially the poor are being forgotten. And we are saying why are so many of the poor dying? When I saw a lack of services and resources for the poor I decided to focus on their needs and directed our resources to this vulnerable population.
Are there things you think should be done differently?
This is what I have noticed. When you respond to first line workers and responders, they are sending letters thanking them. Let’s continue to give the frontline workers encouragement but let’s divert the things they really don’t need like food to the people who are really struggling – the people on the streets. I think let’s keep the N95s for our healthcare workers but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t divert the cheaper but still effective masks to the poor populations including undocumented people.
What are your thoughts about the future?
I’m happy the government is starting to get out of the way of scientists. We are beginning to see things happening that could be great. I don’t think what is “normal” – those things that were normal before are coming back. I think we are going to adapt to what Asian countries have been doing. When people get colds or are sick, they wear masks. This is going to change for us and it is something where we will have to adapt. What will be the new norm? The new norm will be a kit with a reusable mask. We are out in our community and our volunteers will be putting on a mask.
Where do you see your see your partnership with WCC going?
I see we will develop more training together. Without proper training, it’s a recipe for disaster. We want to provide better training for our chaplains and I want WCC to know that spiritual care can be a part of the conversation as much as possible. We talk about mind, body and soul but we never talk about soul. I want people to understand that spiritual care, caring for the soul, is as important as mental health care and medical care. It supports medical and mental health care. I think this pandemic has shown us that when you feel hopeless and there is nothing we can do, people reach out for a higher power, whatever they think that is and I think we can help with that and make the connection to provide some comfort and some peace. We want to make sure we are recognized as part of the whole and that the spiritual is accessible to everyone.
Rev. Dr. Marcos A. Miranda, BCC, BCCS
President/CEO
New York State Chaplain Task Force
