For many people, the word chaplain brings to mind religion, prayer and clergy at a patient’s bedside. Those things can be part of Roshene Lawson’s work at Bruyère Health, but they are only one part of a much broader role.
As a spiritual care provider, Lawson works alongside a team of physicians, nurses, allied health professionals and other hospital workers, supporting patients and families through some of the questions medicine alone cannot answer. A serious illness can change someone’s independence, relationships and even their sense of identity. Lawson’s role is to understand the person experiencing those changes: what gives them strength, what they are holding onto and what still gives their life meaning.
It’s work that has brought Lawson full circle. Her connection to Bruyère Health began in 1979, when she spent a summer volunteering at Saint-Vincent Hospital before starting Grade 9. She later volunteered at Élisabeth Bruyère Hospital’s newly established palliative care unit while attending the University of Ottawa. After studying theology at Trinity College and completing Clinical Pastoral Education placements, she eventually found her calling in hospital chaplaincy.
Today, at Bruyère Health in Ottawa, that calling can lead in some unexpected directions.
Recently, Lawson was speaking with a patient who had received difficult news about a change in his medical condition. She asked whether he wanted to talk about the news or about something he had always wanted to do but hadn’t been able to.
His answer came immediately: he wanted to go to a heavy metal concert.
His health made attending a concert in the community impossible. So Lawson brought the idea to the unit manager, who offered another possibility: if he couldn’t go to a concert, perhaps the concert could come to him.
Lawson started making calls. Her search led her to Scott “Scotchy” McClinton of the Dominion Tavern, who helped bring Ottawa heavy metal band The Sceptre to Bruyère Health for a live concert.
The concert may be unusual, but the thinking behind it is not. The ideas come from listening, Lawson explains.
When a patient nearing the end of her ALS journey found comfort in recordings of birdsong, Lawson learned they reminded her of mornings spent in her backyard with a coffee. That conversation eventually led to Henry, a real budgie who moved into her hospital room. He became such a meaningful companion that he remained at the foot of her bed on the day she died and was later mentioned in her obituary.
Other conversations have led to equally unexpected initiatives, including Hallways of Hope, where patients explored hope and resilience through art with renowned Canadian artist Christopher Griffin, and tattoo initiatives with Glen Paradis of Barnstormer Studio, that allowed patients to reclaim their identity, honour loved ones and tell their stories. A new Smash Room also grew from conversations around anger, grief and loss.
What these experiences share is a focus on the person behind the diagnosis. Illness can take away independence, routines and abilities, but Lawson believes experiences like these can give patients opportunities to make choices, express themselves and reconnect with parts of their identity that illness has not taken away.
Making them happen takes an entire community. Lawson has seen bedside caregivers, physicians, volunteers, housekeeping staff, managers, families, donors and community partners rally around an idea, considering both what is meaningful to the patient and how it can be accomplished safely.
Donor support is particularly important. While health-care funding focuses on clinical care, philanthropy gives Bruyère Health opportunities to create moments of connection, comfort and joy that might otherwise be impossible. They may never appear on a medical chart, but their impact can stay with patients and families long after their time at Bruyère Health.
For Lawson, the concerts, tattoos and other unusual projects are ultimately expressions of something much simpler.
“Patients have taught me that caring begins with presence,” she says.
At Bruyère Health, that means treating the illness while continuing to see the person living through it, and asking a question that can sometimes lead somewhere unexpected: What matters most to you right now?
