June 15, 2023 –  It is devastating when parents learn that their child is critically ill and may be dying. At times like this, the spiritual care service at Rambam Health Care Campus (Rambam) in Haifa, Israel, provides a much-needed layer of emotional support and helps them accept what their children already know.

Having overcome the initial shock that comes from unwelcome news, parents of a child diagnosed with a life-threatening condition ask the same universal questions: why our child? What did we do wrong? Are we being punished? Rambam’s pediatric spiritual care service, headed by Inbal Liber, offers a unique service to pediatric patients and their parents facing this emotional crisis. Irrespective of religion, culture, or ethnicity, parents face the same dilemmas –– all are searching for answers.

The Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital at Rambam provides advanced medical services with a holistic approach to pediatric healthcare. It is the only facility dedicated exclusively to pediatric medicine in Northern Israel, serving all its diverse communities. Rambam’s spiritual care counselors have completed a two-year training course and a 400-hour internship specializing in highly complex medical cases. Being a spiritual care counselor is a unique calling; emotional stability, compassion, and empathy are some character traits the counselor must possess.

At Rambam, the spiritual well-being of an individual is addressed from multiple angles. It is only one layer of support offered to families – psychologists and social workers also play an essential role in the process. Each family approaches their suffering differently. “After performing an initial assessment, we use music, art, relaxation, guided imagery, prayer, and other techniques to help families with their emotional healing. Religious texts are comforting and help parents deal with and find meaning in their crises. Providing emotional support to family members as they prepare to bid farewell to their child is an important part of our service,” Liber explains.

Liber works two days a week in Rambam’s Department of Neonatology and Neonatal Intensive Care and in the Pediatric Dialysis Unit of the Pediatric Nephrology Institute. A lawyer and experienced legal mediator, the skills acquired during her 17-year legal career contribute to Liber’s ability to provide much-needed support to families facing life-threatening crises. Couples often question the choices that led to their heartbreaking situation. Liber shares, “To get pregnant, couples who undergo artificial insemination, including embryo selection, frequently ask if the universe, nature, God, or Allah, are punishing them for their choice or something they did.

“Children know and feel when they are at the end of life. Studies show that a child’s ability to express their feelings and thoughts is far greater than adults assume. It is important to listen to them. I hear things that amaze me and leave me speechless from twelve-year-olds and even six-year-olds. I have a lot to learn from them,” Liber concludes.

Spiritual counselors are also available at Rambam to accompany adults facing life-threatening conditions. However, a child with a severe congenital birth defect, a malignant or chronic disease, or who has been involved in a serious accident, and all Rambam’s other pediatric patients, are treated with ‘kid gloves.’

Based on a Hebrew article that first appeared in Ha’Aretz online edition