Spiritual and Pastoral Care

The Spiritual and Pastoral Care Department is committed to caring for the spiritual, pastoral and religious needs of patients, staff, and relatives of all faiths (and of none).

Who we are

Our team currently consists of two whole-time Hospital Chaplains, a whole-time Roman Catholic Chaplain, a part-time Rabbi and a team of volunteers on each of the sites. We are in the process of developing our multi-faith team so that patients and staff can access the kind of support that is appropriate to them. We have links with many faith leaders in the local community who can be contacted through the hospital switchboard.

The spiritual and pastoral care team is able to provide support in the following areas of patient and staff care:

• Religious support
• End of life issues
• Facing distressing news
• Bereavement care
• Care of the dying and of their relatives
• The effects of sudden death
• Pastoral/spiritual care of palliative patients
• Ethical issues in patient care
• Understanding our own needs and 'triggers' in the workplace
• Supporting bereaved parents

Members of our team can visit at any time. If you would like a Chaplain to visit please ask ward staff to pass on your request or contact us direct.

Here for staff

We provide pastoral, spiritual and religious care for staff and students and provide a friendly, listening ear at any time. We assure everyone of our confidentiality at all times. We also offer to help facilitate support when staff undergo stressful or traumatic events in the course of their work.

Patient care

Much of our work is that of listening to patients, allowing them to 'tell it like it is'. The task of a Chaplain is to 'be with and to be for' the patient. We neither moralise nor seek to convert.

We place a high value upon a person's individual experience and work mostly on a 'one-to-one' basis, in complete confidentiality and trust.

Our concern is for the pastoral, emotional, spiritual and religious needs of patients. While it may appear that the work of the Chaplaincy is mainly religious, in practice it is often a person's spiritual and emotional needs that are paramount. One of our tasks is to enable a person to work through some of the issues which they face as a result of being in hospital. This is particularly true for long-term patients.

The Chaplaincy service is well placed to be able to provide highly skilled support for patients approaching death. This support is also extended to their relatives. Again the focus is upon a person's spiritual and emotional needs, of which specific religious requirements are an expression.

Whenever sudden death occurs, it is attended by a multiplicity of responses. Chaplains are involved in the A&E Departments providing support for relatives and for staff on such occasions. When a patient dies suddenly on a ward, a Chaplain is able to spend time with the relatives, while ward staff attend to the other needs which such a death causes.

We value being involved in multi-disciplinary teams in order that the inner needs, as well as the medical needs, of the individual are understood and attended.

We are also able to assist in the unravelling of difficult ethical issues which patient care presents. We may be used as sounding boards on such occasions, or as a non-medical 'voice' when caring for distressed relatives.