Pastoral Care

Health First provides spiritual and emotional support for patients and families, helping bring comfort, hope, and guidance throughout the care journey.
Chaplain or spiritual advisor

Get support with Pastoral Care.

Spirituality can be a comfort during times of illness, injury, or when you are facing a major life change. Our interfaith team can provide spiritual and emotional support, or simply listen and hold your hand. We support patients, families, doctors, and Health First associates of all faiths and those without spiritual affiliations.

To request Pastoral Care services:

  • Submit a Pastoral Care visitation request
  • Call our office at 321.434.3126, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 
  • If you are in the hospital, ask your unit nurse to request a chaplain.
  • For urgent or after-hours support, call the hospital operator at 321.434.7000 and ask for the on call chaplain.
Pastoral Care visitation request 321.434.3126

Pastoral Care services and team.

Our pastoral care team provides support and guidance every step of the way.

  • Coping with critical illness, new diagnosis, chronic and long-term illness
  • Emotional and spiritual distress
  • Grief, loss, and bereavement
  • Sacramental requests
  • Spiritual/religious identity concerns
  • Referrals to religious and spiritual resources in your community
  • Daily hospital visits
  • Eucharistic ministry for Catholic patients
  • No One Dies Alone (NODA) program that ensures every patient has someone with them at the end of their life
  • Information on advance directives and living wills
  • Bioethical concerns, clarifications, and ethics consultations

Submit a Pastoral Care visitation request 

As a member of the Health First team, pastoral care is available to you when you need spiritual support. 

  • Access to spiritual resources
  • Education and clarification of cultural, religious, and spiritual factors that impact clinical services
  • De-briefing services, onsite and offsite, after traumatic events
  • Emotional and spiritual support and counseling for personal issues
  • Ethics consultations
  • Prayer and conversation
  • Serving as a liaison with a patient's congregation, if requested

Submit a Pastoral Care visitation request

Each hospital has a chapel available for patients, families, and associates 24/7. 

Our chapels offer:

  • Quiet reflection for prayer and meditation
  • Assorted literautre supporting the diversity of faiths in our community
  • Services including baptism, weddings, and memorials 

Chaplain Derly Foerste
Director of Pastoral Care 
321.434.3510
derly.foerste@hf.org

Chaplain Ellen Williams
Manager of Pastoral Care
321.434.7183
ellen.williams@hf.org

Sr. Chaplain Mike Buford
Palm Bay Hospital
321.434.8280
mike.buford@hf.org

Chaplain Thomas "Phil" Warwick
Viera Hospital
321.434.9422
thomas.warwick@hf.org

Chaplain Thomas Buddington 
Cape Canaveral Hospital
321.868.2718
thomas.buddington@hf.org

Karen Meyer
Pastoral Care Coordinator
321.434.8512
karen.meyer@hf.org


Spiritual care volunteers. 

Spiritual care volunteers are an extension, and specially trained team, of our hospital Pastoral Care department. Spiritual care volunteers visit patients and their families in our hospitals, under the direct supervision of our hospital chaplains. Spiritual care volunteers provide encouragement and spiritual refreshments to patients. Spiritual care volunteer visits significantly enhance the patient's journey of health while in our hospitals. 

To learn more about becoming a spiritual care volunteer, fill out a volunteer application or email karen.meyer@hf.org.