708.229.5480
Chaplains are available 24 hours a day to meet your physical, spiritual and emotional needs for healing. We can help you identify issues and talk about feelings, such as loss, crisis, helplessness, pain and suffering.
Chaplains will provide information on Advance Directives, end of life care and choices, or resolve ethical issues. Special religious or cultural needs will be considered and, if possible, accommodated during your stay. All patients are offered spiritual support. Catholic patients are offered daily Communion and the opportunity for sacraments. We are here to pray for you and with you and to offer a calming pastoral presence during your care. We welcome clergy from all denominations to visit members of their congregation who are patients, with your approval.
Self-Determination
The Self-Determination Act became effective December 1991. It not only supports your right to choose or refuse specific treatments or all treatments, but also requires hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, hospices and HMOs to inform you about Advance Directives.
At Little Company, we strongly believe in your authority to make health care decisions. We are guided by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Facilities and assure you of our commitment to excellence in service as well as our respect for you and your values.
The principles of informed consent and the right to refuse treatment allow you to make decisions about the course of your health care. We encourage you to express your treatment preferences in writing through legal documents called Advance Directives.
Advance Directives
Advance Directives are written instructions under state law relating to an individual's health care when he or she is incapacitated. Advance Directives take two forms:
- Living Will
- Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
We believe that life is a precious gift, one that we have an obligation to enjoy and protect. An essential part of life is the quality of life that we live and value. During times of prolonged illness, this quality may change and become unacceptable to you. The best way for you to retain control is to let your wishes be known by recording your preferences in advance. It is also very important that you talk to your loved ones and those close to you about your personal wishes regarding health care.
The purpose of the Living Will and the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is to enable you to state your wishes clearly in writing and to appoint someone to make choices for you if you become unable to make decisions.
Living Will
Through the Living Will, you as a competent adult, declare instructions in writing to physicians to withhold or withdraw death-delaying procedures. The Living Will is only activated when a person is terminally ill. Terminally ill is defined as an incurable and irreversible condition in which death is imminent.
A valid Living Will can allow for termination of certain death-delaying procedures including a respirator, dialysis or blood transfusions. It allows for comfort care like medication, sustenance and medical procedures that provide comfort.
It does not allow for termination of nutrition and hydration if the person would die solely from dehydration or starvation, rather than from the terminal condition. The Living Will requires two witnesses who are not heirs.
Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers does not provide Living Will forms, due to the fact that the Power of Attorney for Health Care supercedes the Living Will. However, when provided a Living Will by patients and/or others, they will be honored. If the Living Will was executed prior to January 1, 1984, the date that the Living Will Act went into effect, there may be a question of validity and the Power of Attorney for Health Care should be executed, if possible. We do encourage patients and families to execute a Power of Attorney for Health Care in order that they may name an agent or successor agents that will ensure that their End of Life Wishes will be fulfilled.
Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
Through this document you appoint a person as an "agent" to make medical decisions for you if you are unable to make them for yourself. This agent makes decisions consistent with your values, philosophy and belief, and weighs the benefits and burdens of treatment.
Your agent will decide in your best interest, guided by knowledge of your wishes regarding health care. This document is legally binding on physicians and hospitals. It requires one witness who is not an heir. However, your agent may be an heir.
Decisions Concerning Care When You or a Loved One Has a Terminal Illness
You may wish to consider now what you would want done about life supports such as a respirator or dialysis machine. Today, we use the terms Code or No Code to indicate if "heroics" will or will not be used. A Code is a life-saving set of procedures carried out on a patient whose heart or lungs have suddenly stopped. It involves the use of a tube in the throat and a respirator to breathe, plus electric shock to stimulate the heart. This is an emergency effort to save a life. A No Code means that no life-saving measures to the heart or lungs will be used on a patient when either stops functioning. In such a situation, you would be allowed to die naturally with the aid of pain medications and comfort measures.
During the final stages of terminal illness, it would be inappropriate or futile to prolong death or to burden the patient with "heroics." You can make a choice regarding a No Code by talking with your physician. Withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining procedures is morally permissible when they prolong the final stage of a terminal illness.
The New Illinois Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order
As of July 1, 2001, Little Company offers patients and families a new way to communicate their "do not resuscitate" (DNR) intentions. A bright pink form will be given to you upon request from our Pastoral Care Department for this purpose. For us to be able to respect your wishes, especially during transportation to and from the Hospital, you will need to discuss your desire for a DNR order with your physician and complete the pink form. Then, give the form to your nurse to be included in your medical records. For more information contact Pastoral Care extension 5480.
Artificial Nutrition
Catholic ethical teaching permits withdrawing artificial nutrition when it is merely prolonging the final stage of dying. We must use ethical and legal sensitivity to protect the patient's right to nourishment. It is vital that you consider your personal wishes regarding nutrition and hydration and the use of feeding tubes. Convey your wishes clearly on your Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care form.
Decisions
You may ask yourself, "How do I make these important decisions that express my values and beliefs?" We encourage you to discuss your health care choices with your loved ones and your physician. This means looking holistically at the plan of treatment-spiritually, emotionally, physically and financially. You must weigh the burdens and the benefits of medical care in relation to yourself and your family.
Benefits: What good will this treatment do for me? Will the quality of my life remain at an acceptable level or have meaning for me? Does my physician believe I can recover or be more comfortable with this treatment? Do I believe this?
Burdens: What are the long-term implications and costs of the treatment? Do they provide comfort or just prolong my pain, suffering or death?
If the burdens outweigh the benefits, it is not necessary to begin or continue treatment.
The New Health Care Surrogate Act
This Act does not apply when the patient has a valid Living Will or Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care and the patient's condition falls within the coverage of those documents.
This new Act allows a "surrogate decision maker" such as a guardian, spouse, adult son or daughter, parent or friend to make health care decisions for those patients who have a "qualifying condition," such as an inability to make decisions or understand the consequences of a decision.
Specific guidelines apply to those cases and two physicians must determine that the patient lacks the decision capacity. If you want more information about this Act, please call Pastoral Care at extension 5480.
If you desire more information and/or copies of the Living Will and Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, please call the Pastoral Care Department or ask your nurse to assist you.
The Ethics Committee at Little Company offers consultation services regarding ethical issues. Other staff members also available to help you reflect on your options are the social workers, chaplains, patient representatives, physicians, and case management representatives.
Where Should I Keep My Advance Directive?
We recommend that you keep the original form, give a copy to your physician and a copy to your agent. A copy will also be placed in your current medical record.
Support Programs
Our Pastoral Care Department also extends its outreach to the community through the following programs.
Living When a Loved One Has Died
For those who have lost a loved one, you should know our Pastoral Care Department can appreciate how devastated you are. We would like to offer support, help and encouragement to you and your family.
Perhaps for a variety of reasons, you hesitate to share your deep feelings of grief or you feel cautious of tiring others with your concerns, or it's just too difficult to share with someone the magnitude of what you are facing. Whatever holds you back, we know that it means a great deal to talk about your loss and to feel understood. It is one of the most vital means of letting you know that you will survive and feel whole again.
Our Adult Bereavement Program is held on six consecutive Wednesdays from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Gatherings take place in spring and fall. For special dates, contact Pastoral Care at 708.229.5480.
- The Grief Process: What is Happening to Me?
- Understanding Your Feelings
- Families Grieve Differently- Finding Support
- How Am I Doing? Issues of Complicated Grief
- Taking Time: A Call to Live Again
- Coming Through Your Grief
We ask for a fee of $25 for those who are able. See our listing in Classes, Support Groups & Events.
Heart Connection
Little Company hosts this program for grieving children each spring and fall. We realize mourning the loss of a family member or cherished person is hard but essential work for all families if their future is to be happy and secure. Children are no exception. They need a safe, accepting and nurturing environment where each can grieve in his or her own way.
Our Heart Connection staff is committed to supporting families, schools and the community in caring for grieving children. Little Company offers this unique program that encourages children to honor and express their feelings of loss. Through creative activities and the companionship of other children in similar circumstances, they find the necessary guidance and support necessary for their healing.
The Heart Connection meets weekly for nine sessions from 6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. The first session is a family orientation to the program. After that, the children gather weekly in age-specific support groups:-
5-6 years
- 7-9 years
- 10-12 years
- 13-17 years
Trained professional co-facilitators guide each group through creative activities suitable to their developmental ages, enabling their expression of grief and enhancing their coping skills.
Simultaneous to the children's group, professional grief specialists present weekly topics to parents and family members to guide and support them in helping their children, as well as caring for themselves, through this painful experience of grief.
Registration and a completed application are required for acceptance into the program, whose enrollment is limited to 32 children. We ask that children attend all nine sessions. There is no fee since it is part of our mission to provide services like this to the communities we serve.
Ordinarily, in the child's best interest, we advise waiting to enter the program until her or she is at least three months' bereaved.
Maternal Child Perinatal Loss
Recognizing the grief and depth of feelings associated with the loss of a pregnancy at any gestation, ectopic, miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death, the Maternal Child Service and Pastoral Care Department seeks to offer their skillful experience, supportive caring and spiritual resources to guide and assist families in their various needs at their time of loss. It is the hospital's mission to honor the dignity of all human life -- and offer a deep respect for persons of all cultures or creed.
Cherished Angel Garden
This garden is located on hospital grounds and was created as a sacred place for quiet reflection and prayer for families mourning the death of their baby, either recently or at another time of their life. The garden is open for visiting during daylight hours -- May to late October. Each year on the third Sunday of May, we invite those who have had a recent loss at the hospital or in our community, to come for a gathering of families at our Remembrance Service. For further information, or for directions to the garden, please call the Family Birth Center at 708.229.5928, or the hospital chaplain at 708.229.5484.
Other Grief Support Programs sponsored by the Pastoral Care Department
Parents of Murdered Children, Inc., is a national, non-profit, self-help program for bereaved parents or anyone else who has lost a loved one to homicide. This Chicago chapter meets the first Thursday of the month from 7 to 9 p.m., in the 6th floor Tower Building, Room C. Call Pat Nichols at 773.660.9659 for more information.
The Compassionate Friends is a non-profit, self-help program which offers friendship and understanding to families grieving the death of a child at any age, from any cause. The South Suburban chapter meets the third Sunday of the month at 3 p.m. in the Tower Building, 8th floor Solarium. Call Richalena Taylor at 708.748.6840 for information.
The Barr Harris Children's Grief Support Center at Little Company of Mary Hospital is a counseling service providing individual therapy to children mourning the loss of a parent or family member through death, divorce or abandonment, and child guidance services to the family. Set fees on a sliding scale so that no family is denied therapeutic services for reason of financial status. No child is ever turned away. For information or an appointment, call 312.922.7474.
Coping with the Holidays is an evening meeting of support and guidance offered to bereaved families preparing for the holidays and is presented by a national speaker on grief and loss, Father Jim Heneghan, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago. For date, time and other information, please call the Pastoral Care Department at 708.229.5480.
See our listing in Classes, Support Groups & Events.
Spirituality
3:30 p.m. Mass is celebrated Monday through Friday in the Hospital Chapel on the first floor. There is a 4 p.m. vigil Mass for Holy Days. Masses are televised on channel 4 for our patients.
Lent begins with a Communion Service and Blessing of the Ashes, with distribution of ashes to all patients. Lenten meditations and Stations of the Cross are made available, as well as a Mass of the Last Supper and Veneration of the Cross.
Christmas Eve Mass is celebrated at 10 p.m., with Christmas Carols beginning at 9:30 p.m. This Mass is also shown to patients on channel 4.
A Memorial Mass is celebrated in the spring and fall for family and friends who have suffered a loss here at Little Company of Mary.
The Mary Potter Nine Day Novena is offered twice a year, with an emphasis on those special persons in our lives who are suffering an illness or are in need of special prayers.
Prayer cards are placed on the patients' breakfast trays for all holy days and holidays throughout the year.
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