Geriatric-Focused CPE as a Tool in Seminary Training

Clinical Pastoral Education in a geriatric setting enhances seminarians' classroom education and prepares them for pastoral care with the growing numbers of elders they will serve in congregational, health care, and residential settings. Strengths of a geriatric setting for CPE include demographic congruence with most ministry settings, breaking stereotypes of aging, longevity of pastoral relationships, opportunities for multifaceted care, decreasing fear of dementia, learning from care recipients, caring for multiple generations of a family, learning about the importance of context to pastoral care, exposure to systems, end-of-life decision making, learning about a good death, and profound clinical theological reflection. Several downsides of geriatric settings are also described.