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The Ojo and
Death Project
San Francisco Bay Area Study Tour
July 21-25, 2008
In our continuing study of Buddhist spiritual care for the critically ill, the dying, and the bereaved, we recognized that it was absolutely necessary to investigate the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. The region has had two significant factors that have made it a major center for the development of Buddhist based spiritual care.
The first is that San Francisco has been a center for the counter-culture and alternative culture movements in the United States since the 1950s. Buddhism has been part of this movement from the beginning, and the Bay Area has an incredible variety of different Buddhist groups (including a high number of indigenous Asian communities as well as convert communities), major retreat centers and temples, and sanghas involved in all sorts of social engagement (such as peace advocacy, prison chaplaincy, and terminal care).
The second key factor coming out of this first one is that San Francisco as a center of gay culture in America in turn became one of the major flashpoints in the initial AIDS crisis of the late 1980s. With people getting sick, declining rapidly, and dying suddenly, there was an urgent need for terminal care. Many of the sufferers were extremely exposed having been ostracized by their families and lacking the financial means to combat their illness.
Since this time, Buddhist care for the terminally ill has expanded to include other at need groups in the area. In San Francisco, if you are poor you have three options: a) Laguna Honda Hospital which has an open ward hospice, b) Maitri which specializes in AIDS patients, and c) the potential to use insurance if you want to stay at home. But if you are poor, it may not be safe to stay at home since the environment may be problematic. The patient may also have a double or triple diagnosis, mental illness, etc. so being at home is not really an option. Between these three different resources, there is really only ideally a need for another 20 hospice beds in the city. The situation is much more manageable than at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Finally, there is a growing interest among individual Buddhists and Buddhist communities to study and train as volunteers and chaplains in such care. During these five days, we visited these two projects and also tracked down a few Buddhist chaplains working to train others in spiritual care.
July 21-25, 2008
In our continuing study of Buddhist spiritual care for the critically ill, the dying, and the bereaved, we recognized that it was absolutely necessary to investigate the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. The region has had two significant factors that have made it a major center for the development of Buddhist based spiritual care.
The first is that San Francisco has been a center for the counter-culture and alternative culture movements in the United States since the 1950s. Buddhism has been part of this movement from the beginning, and the Bay Area has an incredible variety of different Buddhist groups (including a high number of indigenous Asian communities as well as convert communities), major retreat centers and temples, and sanghas involved in all sorts of social engagement (such as peace advocacy, prison chaplaincy, and terminal care).
The second key factor coming out of this first one is that San Francisco as a center of gay culture in America in turn became one of the major flashpoints in the initial AIDS crisis of the late 1980s. With people getting sick, declining rapidly, and dying suddenly, there was an urgent need for terminal care. Many of the sufferers were extremely exposed having been ostracized by their families and lacking the financial means to combat their illness.
Since this time, Buddhist care for the terminally ill has expanded to include other at need groups in the area. In San Francisco, if you are poor you have three options: a) Laguna Honda Hospital which has an open ward hospice, b) Maitri which specializes in AIDS patients, and c) the potential to use insurance if you want to stay at home. But if you are poor, it may not be safe to stay at home since the environment may be problematic. The patient may also have a double or triple diagnosis, mental illness, etc. so being at home is not really an option. Between these three different resources, there is really only ideally a need for another 20 hospice beds in the city. The situation is much more manageable than at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Finally, there is a growing interest among individual Buddhists and Buddhist communities to study and train as volunteers and chaplains in such care. During these five days, we visited these two projects and also tracked down a few Buddhist chaplains working to train others in spiritual care.
Maitri
Hospice for AIDS
The Zen Hospice Project at Laguna Honda Hospital
Buddhist Chaplains in the United States
The Zen Hospice Project at Laguna Honda Hospital
Buddhist Chaplains in the United States
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