For 15 years, the Rev. Robert Gale was pastor at Henderson Memorial United Baptist Church in Farmington, but he now serves a different congregation — the patients and staff at Bangor Mental Health Institute. The amiable chaplain did know what kind of work he was getting into when he came to BMHI nine years ago. In Massachusetts, he had done chaplaincy work part-time in a correctional institution and at Westboro State Hospital while also running a camp and conference program.

In an institution, of course, the “parishioners” are not spread out as they are in a town or city. “The people are right here in a common setting,” Gale said. But there’s a lot about the ministry that is the same. “It’s still being with people in the midst of their need,” he said.

Like other ministers, Gale has a regular schedule of Sunday services: 9 a.m. for the Program on Aging in the Pooler Pavilion, 10 a.m. in the main building, and later in the morning on another unit in that building.

Roman Catholic services are offered also, he pointed out. The chaplain at St. Joseph Hospital, the Rev. Richard Rokos, comes in to celebrate Mass at 9:30 a.m. in the main building, and 10:30 a.m. in the Pooler Pavilion.

But Sunday services are not usually the first place where patients encounter Gale. “Usually, I meet patients through the admissions ward,” he said, “and offer them pastoral and spiritual support. Throughout the stay here, I try to relate to each person, to meet his or her spiritual needs.”

What each person needs or wants from a chaplain varies widely. It can be everything from a warm greeting in the halls to “more personal attention in the midst of crisis — to the person as well as to the family,” Gale said.

Personal situations vary, too. Some patients are committed by courts, and are very angry about being there, and others come in willingly and work toward their plans for the future.

“If patients go into a general hospital, I visit them there, too,” he said. And if a person wants contact with his home pastor while at BMHI, Gale will facilitate that. “We really encourage contact with the local community church,” Gale said, especially as the patient reenters the community.

“As chaplain, I am a part of the treatment team,” Gale explained. “Therefore, I share my concerns with and for the patient.” Chaplaincy services are actually a part of rehabilitation services at the hospital, services which also include recreational therapy, occupational therapy, educational therapy, physical therapy, and volunteer services.

Gale also has a ministry with the staff at BMHI, too, “as they work with a patient, and at times of their own personal family concern or crisis,” he said.

And he works not just with the patients, but with their concerned relatives. “There are times when I am involved with the families,” he said, and “a lot is done through the department of social work.”

BMHI currently has about 230 patients on more than a dozen separate units, Gale said. Especially because several of the units serve older people, Gale sometimes finds himself leading funeral services after someone dies. In addition, “there’s always a memorial service here, too,” he said.

It’s a different sort of community compared to the congregations he used to serve. Still, “there’s a great feeling of relationship between patients,” he said. “They support each other; they identify with what each other is going through.”

Although some patients stay at the hospital for a long time, many do return successfully to live and work in the community. That pleases Gale very much, but he is also aware of the stigma mental-health patients face.

There does seem to be more awareness now of mental illness as “another physical illness,” he said. For the past two years, some public education has come through “Changing the Image,” a program which sees former patients speaking to community groups.

Activities such as the upcoming Christmas Pageant, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 4, bring the public into positive contact with people at BMHI. There is also “good support” at Christmas time in the form of Christmas gifts for the patients.

Gale also helped coordinate a recent course for pastors and future pastors titled “Ministry to Persons Affected by Mental Illness.” The Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Maine helps support such efforts, too.

What is needed is often affected by the severity of the person’s illness. “You have to be very sensitive to what is happening with the patient,” he said, “so you’re supporting him or her, and yet not feeding into the illness.”

Patients vary, of course, in how much religious activity they want or can manage. Gale believes very much in “a ministry of the presence, even for people who are unable to communicate.”

But even patients who can’t talk shouldn’t be written off as unresponsive. He has seen response in such patients “when they hear old songs of the faith,” he said. “The music speaks volumes.”