Kashouvot has grown to become the largest training center for spiritual caregivers in Israel. Those courses were initiated by the Schwartz Center for Health and Spirituality in 2014 and both non-profit organizations joined forces in 2020. Our program received accreditation from the Association for Spiritual Care in Israel and is well-known for its high educational standards. During 2023, 30 students studied in our two-year training programs at three centers all around the country: Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Poriya Medical Center in Tiberias, and Beit Rivkah Geriatric Medical Center in Petah Tikva. Dr. Orly Barak, head of the geriatric departments and Dr. Rotem Tellem, head of the Palliative care team, at Ichilov Medical Center approached Kashouvot and asked us to develop a training center in their hospital. This important new site is one of Israel’s three largest and most respected hospitals and represents a new stage of acceptance and recognition for the value of spiritual care for patients and for Kashouvot as the address for quality care training.
On September 23, we are welcoming three new cohorts of students and during year 2023-24, Kashouvot’s teaching staff will train 45 future spiritual caregivers (chaplains), 3 groups with 30 participants will study at Ichilov Hospital and 2 groups with 15 participants will study at the Poriah Hospital.
Our students are interns in a wide range of departments in those medical centers and in more than twenty hospitals and geriatric settings all around Israel. We bring Spiritual Care to patients, family members and healthcare staff in geriatric care, internal medicine, oncology, hematology, neurology, gynecology, urology, intensive care, dialysis and maternity.
Our alumni constitute 55% (95 chaplains) of the total number of chaplains who graduate from all Israeli programs and were certified by the Association for Spiritual Care in Israel. Most of our Clinical Pastoral Education (C.P.E.) training program graduates work in nursing homes, hospitals, as well as in private practice. Many of them work at Elah’s traumatic bereavement support program for loss due to suicide, car accidents, murder and terrorism.
On October 23, Kashouvot opened a new course to train certified chaplains in the specialty of Individual Supervision in Spiritual Care. The course will be taught by Tova Avihai-Kraemer and ten experiences spiritual caregivers from all over the country, will take part in this new training.
We are proud of our achievements and we are convinced that training the new generations of Israeli spiritual caregivers is meaningful for the development and professional quality of the field.