Pastoral care director at Griffin Hospital in Derby wins award

Rev. Jo Clare Wilson

Director of Pastoral Care and Education at Griffin Hospital The Rev. Jo Clare Wilson of Hamden, recently received the prestigious 2013 Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. (ACPE) at its national conference.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes the contributions of ACPE members for a variety of achievements, including long term service, outstanding service, innovative program practice or development, leadership, and recognition for contributions to related organizations.

A native of Nashville, Tenn., Wilson completed her M.Div. at Vanderbilt University and her Clinical Pastoral Education at Presbyterian Hospital in Denver. Ordained in the Disciples of Christ Church she spent the last 33 years in healthcare chaplaincy and education in Colorado, Nebraska, Michigan, Georgia, and South Carolina. For 13 years she has been Director of Pastoral Care and Education at Griffin Hospital in Derby.

Wilson has served ACPE both regionally and nationally in a variety of capacities. She served several terms on the Board of Representatives as member at large for women and as a representative for the Southeast Region.
She was Regional Director in the East Central Region from 1989 to 1991 prior to moving to Savannah. In 1998 as she began her term as President of ACPE she moved to Greenville, South Carolina where she was Director of Pastoral Care and Education. In 2000 she moved to Connecticut and served as Co-regional Director in the Eastern Region in 2005.

For more than 10 years she has co-chaired of the ACPE GLBT network, helping persons in the supervisory and educational process as well as providing education for the organization around issues of sexuality.

Her areas of interest in ministry include spirituality and health; addiction and family systems; and psychiatric illness.
Wilson co-authored the chapter “Spirituality: Inner Resources for Healing” in Putting Patients First: Designing and Practicing Patient- Centered Care, and wrote Spiritual and Pastoral Care of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered (GLBT) People in Professional Spiritual and Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain’s Handbook.

This post is taken from a press release from Griffin Hospital.


I've known Rev. Jo Clare since she started working at Griffin and I congratulate her on this much-deserved recognition!  

Griffin to offer spiritual care training

DERBY - Griffin Hospital will start a spiritual care training program this year thanks to a generous grant from philanthropist Jean Graustein.

The Clinical Pastoral Education for Healthcare Program will provide nurses and other healthcare professionals with clinical and classroom training in how to include spirituality into the care they provide their patients.

“This program will help healthcare professionals understand how patients’ beliefs and values are integral to the whole person and how they can include their own spirituality in a manner that is helpful in human interaction and relationships,” said the Rev. Jo Clare Wilson, director of Griffin’s Pastoral Care and Education Program.

Wilson said she hopes the program will serve as a model for other hospitals in the Planetree Inc. network, of which Griffin is a member.
Planetree is an international consumer healthcare organization dedicated to humanizing health care, including implementation of innovative models of healthcare that focus on healing and nurturing of body, mind, and spirit.

Though spirituality is increasingly considered part of the healing process and a necessary ingredient in the delivery of excellent care, Wilson said, medical and nursing staff often see it as the exclusive domain of pastoral care, the patient, or the patient’s own family or personal spiritual leader.

“The Planetree vision for the incorporation of spirituality in care requires that healthcare providers, not just the chaplains, are knowledgeable about and aware of the spiritual needs of patients and families as central to the healing process,” Wilson said.

This information is taken from a press release from Griffin Hospital. 

Griffin to offer pastoral education

DERBY -  Griffin Hospital’s Pastoral Care and Education Department is offering an extended unit of Clinical Pastoral Education for area clergy, seminarians, and lay persons from Jan. 24 - May 23.

Clinical Pastoral Education is designed to enhance pastoral care, listening, assessment, and intervention.
The model of education is action/reflection with an emphasis on process learning. The course requires a commitment of approximately 20 hours a week.

To apply or for information, contact Chaplain Cormac Levenson, at 203-732-1126 or clevenson@griffinhealth.org.

Griffin to offer pastoral education course

DERBY - Griffin Hospital’s Pastoral Care and Education Department is offering an extended unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) for area clergy, seminarians and lay persons from Sept. 3 to Jan. 9.
Clinical Pastoral Education is designed to enhance pastoral care, listening, assessment and intervention.  The CPE model of education is action/reflection with an emphasis on process learning.
The course requires a commitment of approximately 20 hours a week.
For information and/or an application, contact Chaplain Cormac Levenson at clevenson@griffinhealth.org or 203-732-1126.