Chaplaincy & Spiritual Care
Choose a link to see more information about a specific area or scroll down to the information below.
Chapel, prayer rooms & quiet space
What do we provide?
The chaplains offer Trust-wide support to service users, relatives, carers, and staff, especially around spiritual, faith, and religious concerns. We serve those who do not regard themselves as belonging to any faith as well as those who are regular members of their own faith communities.
We are able to help both on the wards and in building support networks in the community. Chaplains are also involved in 
ensuring that people's spiritual needs are met throughout the Trust.
Anyone can use our service and you do not have to be religious to ask for our help.
We offer a consultancy to mental health professionals, faith communities, and other agencies on matters of spirituality and mental health. This is normally a free service.
External training may be available though the fees will be by negotiation.
We offer different kinds of help, including the following:
Spiritual Care
We recognise that illness affects our whole lives. Spiritual care explores hopes and fears; sources of meaning and strength; and the relationships and concerns that matter most in your life. You may find it helpful to talk to someone who has time to listen and is experienced in supporting people with mental health problems or learning difficulties. We consider everyone to be of equal worth. We respect individual feelings, beliefs and values. And we recognise that people have differing needs and circumstances.
Religious Support
Chaplains can help meet your religious needs while you are in hospital. There are chapels and prayer rooms at both the Longley Centre and the Michael Carlisle Centre where we provide services of worship. The Muslim chaplain comes with specialist expertise as do our Christian chaplains. We also have a Learning Disabilities Chaplaincy.
If you are of a faith for which we have no chaplain or volunteer, and would like support from someone of your own faith, then with your permission, we can contact someone from your own faith community. Alternatively, we will happily support you to the best of our abilities.
Chapel, prayer rooms, quiet space
Service users, carers, and staff are welcome to use these rooms to relax or get a break off the ward. All we ask if that you leave the rooms as you find them out of consideration for others and give priority to people who wish to use them for prayer. See next section for locations.
Activities
We run a number of weekly activities as below:
Centre |
Activity |
Day |
Time |
|
Longley Centre |
Coffee & Chat |
Thursday |
3.00 - 4.30 pm |
|
|
Communion Service |
Sunday |
6.30-7pm |
|
Michael Carlisle Centre |
Coffee & Chat |
Tuesday |
2.30-3.30pm |
|
|
Communion Service |
Wednesday |
1.30-2.30pm |
Who are we?
We are a team of NHS staff and volunteers who provide spiritual care and religious support for service users, carers, and staff. The team consists of chaplains from the main Christian traditions and a Muslim chaplain. We are all experienced in Healthcare Chaplaincy. The team is supported by trained volunteers. As with all NHS staff, we can be identified by our official badges and we follow strict confidentiality rules.
How is the service accessed?
Service users, carers and staff may make referrals or enquiries in any of the following ways:
- By phone (see contacts page)
- Face-to-face with a chaplain
- By asking a member of staff to contact us
- By e-mail (though please be advised that this is not a confidential form of communication).
Referrals will be prioritised and we will let you know what service we are able to offer you and how long you may have to wait.
Due to limited resources, we normally ask that people meet us on their ward (where appropriate) or at one of our offices. We can make exceptions where physical disability or mental health issues require. The Learning Disabilities Chaplaincy is a community chaplaincy and will normally visit people in the community.
Volunteers
We are keen to recruit a wide range of volunteers from diverse backgrounds. We welcome
- People with mental health difficulties or learning disabilities.
- People from any faith and none
- People with physical disabilities.
All we ask is that volunteers should be in sympathy with our aims. If you would like to find our more about volunteering, please download our leaflet from the leaflets section below.
Training and research
We provide training to staff throughout the Trust on spiritual care. Our training is modular and can therefore be readily adapted to the needs of particular groups. A sample of a two-hour course is provided below.
Sample training course
We also provide placement opportunities for people seeking to develop their careers. Each training placement is individually negotiated so, if you are interested in exploring whether or not a placement might be suitable for you, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Three members of our team are currently pursuing postgraduate studies relevant to chaplaincy. We are keen to engage in reflective practice and to develop our service in response to current thinking in the NHS.
A personal view
"I have found that volunteering has given me confidence and self-belief. It has also helped me to find that I get a great deal of pleasure from helping other service users as myself. It is a lovely working environment and Julian and Sheila are both very nice to work for.”
David, one of our volunteers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What is spirituality?
Answer: A definition of spirituality (adopted by the Spirituality Strategy group on 8th February 2010)
"In every human being there seems to be a spiritual dimension, a quality that goes beyond religious affiliation, that strives for inspiration, reverence, awe, meaning, and purpose... ...The spiritual dimension tries to be in harmony with the universe, strives for answers about the infinite, and comes essentially into focus in times of emotional stress, physical illness, loss, bereavement, and death." Murray RB, Zentner JP. Nursing concepts for health promotion. London: Prentice Hall; 1989, p. 259.
Question: What is spiritual care?
"Spiritual care is that which is delivered with compassion, respect, and dignity, taking into account a person’s strengths, needs, beliefs, interests, and experience of their overall care. It may or may not include anything to do with God. Spiritual care is an essential aspect of quality holistic care." From research conducted in the Trust by Julian Raffay, 2011.
Question: Are chaplains only for Christians and Muslims?
Answer: No, chaplains are available for anyone, regardless of faith, creed, sexual orientation or similar. We spend most of our time with people who would not see themselves as belonging to a formal religion.
Question: What about confidentiality?
Answer: We take great care of any information you may give us and will wherever possible alert you to how we handle confidentiality. In general, conversations with chaplains are confidential between you and the particular chaplain involved. However, we are part of the NHS care team and where a matter is disclosed that could put either you or another person at risk, we have a duty of care to forward that information on, but only on a strict need-to-know basis. Where this happens, will generally either ask you to inform an appropriate person yourself or seek your permission to do so. Where we have taken action, we will inform you of what we have done.
We use Insight for the recording of activity with service users but, again, we will seek your permission before recording anything on computer. You may ask to see this information under the Data Protection Act. We do not have access to medical or nursing notes and other ward staff do not have access to our notes. If you would like further information on this, please do not hesitate to ask. We will always ask your permission before putting any notes about you on Insight.
Question: Do chaplains visit people in the community?
Answer: There are only 2.6 chaplains for the Trust so we usually invite people to come and see us in the hospital. If however you or a client you are referring has a physical disability or a condition like agoraphobia, we will explore the possibility of a home visit with you.
Question: How do I complain?
Answer: If you have a complaint about any aspect of our service, we would like to be the first to put it right. If however you are not happy with our response, please do not hesitate to contact Wendy Hedland at the Trust's Complaints Department on 0114 271 8956.
Leaflets
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How the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Department Can Help You: For Michael Carlisle Centre
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How the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Department Can Help You: For the Community
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How the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Department Can Help You: For the Longley Centre
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Exploring spiritual faiths, strengths and needs
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Volunteering with the Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Department
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Spirituality Section of the adult acute Recovery Folder
-
Report on the Place of Spirituality in Mental Health (2011) National Forum on Spirituality
Websites
The following websites contain material or downloads that may be of interest for further reading. These are offered in good faith but we cannot accept responsibility for material on external websites.
BBC - good for information about different faiths and festivals http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/
Care Services Improvement Partnership http://www.outcomemeasures.csip.org.uk/silo/files/a-common-purpose.pdf
Catholic Church
http://www.mentalhealthproject.co.uk/
http://www.catholicchurch.org.uk/mentalhealth
Church of England
http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/churches
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/socialpublic/homeaffairs/mentalhealth/gs1678.pdf
Mental Health Foundation - examples of good practice
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/?entryid=51514&entryid5=51514&char=K
Mind on Mental Health of South Asian Community in Brtiain http://www.mind.org.uk/help/information_and_advice
Royal College of Psychiatrists http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfo/treatments/spirituality.aspx
Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health http://www.scmh.org.uk/publications/spiritual_resources.aspx?ID=574
Also
Further reading
Annotated Bibliography
The books below have been used as part of our training courses. Some of them are quite academic. Do feel free to make contact if you are interested in finding out more about a particular book. We are not able to provide a library service.
Cooke, Chris et al, 2009, Spirituality and Psychiatry, London, Royal College of Psychiatrists. A really significant contribution, includes a chapter on assessing spirituality needs, on pathological spirituality and religion and religious experiences.
Coyte, Mary Ellen et al, 2007, Spirituality, Values and Mental Health: Jewels for the Journey¸ London, Jessica Kingsley. Explores the place of values in the mental health enterprise. Includes reference to the virtuous and vicious circles.
Fowler, James W 1978, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning, New York, HarperCollins. A formative book which draws on construct theory.
Gilbert, Peter (Ed), 2011, Spirituality and Mental Health, Brighton, Pavilion. A compilation of contributions that explore various issues relevant to spiritual care.
Koenig, Harold (Ed) 1998 Handbook of Religion and Mental Health, San Diego, Academic Press. This is the definitive book on evidence-based research. It’s expensive at £65.00 but worth it.
Koenig, Harold, 2007, Spirituality in Patient Care, West Conshohocken, Templeton Foundation. A light version of the above. Good on when, how, what, what. Practical.
Koestenbaum, Peter, 2002, Leadership: The Inner Side of Greatness, a Philosophy for Leaders, San Fansisco, Jossey-Bass. A leadership philosophy book which considers vision, ethics, reality, and courage. Really challenging and inspiring. One of the better of its kind. Interesting to read in association with the book below.
Lencioni, P The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, pp 187-220, San Fransisco, Jossey-Bass.
McFadyen, Alistair 1990, The Call to Personhood: A Christian Theory of the Individual in Social Relationships, Cambridge, CUP. An outstanding book for anyone who has an interest in philosophy. Not an easy read but profound stuff.
McSherry, Wilfred and Ross, Linda (Eds), 2010, Spiritual Assessment in Healthcare Practice, Keswick, M&M Publishing. This book provides an excellent overview of the issues in spiritual assessment though from a general hospital perspective.
Narayanasamy, Aru, 2001, Spiritual Care: A Practical Guide for Nurses and Health Care Practitioners, Dinton, Mark Allen. This book covers much of the ground. Its greatest limitation is the 114 pages. Positively though it’s quick and pretty accesible.
Orchard, Helen, (ed.) 2001, Spirituality in Health Care Contexts, London, ¸ London, Jessica Kingsley. Older material but includes contributions from different faith perspectives.
Robinson, Simon et al, 2003, Spirituality and the Practice of Healthcare, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan. A more technical read but contains some very profound material.
Schön, Donald, 1983 The Reflective Practitioner, New York, Basic Books. Not so much on spirituality as on reflective practice. Highly influential book.
Seligman, Martin, 2008, Authentic Happiness, London, Nicholas Brealey. From the chair of the American Psychology Association, looks at positive psychology. An easy and stimulating read with self-assessment scales in it.
Swinton, John, 2000, Resurrecting the Person: Friendship and the Care of People with Mental Health Problems. Nashville: Abingdon Press. A Christian plea to engage with the patient as a person and to face the challenges of their social context.
What do you think?
We would love to know what you think about our webpages. If you have any comments or suggestions, do let us know! Many thanks, Julian Raffay
This page was last updated on 19th September 2012
