Spiritual care for all in healthcare settings
Healthcare Chaplaincy
Chaplains are employed in the NHS, and other health and social care settings, to provide for the pastoral, spiritual and religious needs of people of all of faiths and philosophies of life. Chaplains are there to support patients/services users, those that matter to them, as well as staff.
While the spiritual care of patients is the responsibility of all who work in health and social care, chaplains are the specialists in assessing and responding to complex spiritual need. Chaplains play an important part in holistic care multi-disciplinary team working to support patients.
Spiritual care is most commonly offered in a one-to-one relationship, is person centred and makes no assumptions about personal conviction or life orientation. Chaplains do not impose their beliefs or values, but offer a listening ear with warmth, compassion, humour and respect.
Chaplains from Free Church denominations work within a contemporary multi-faith and belief and multicultural context. The Free Church Group fully supports the Five Principles of Healthcare Chaplaincy (agreed by the Network for Pastoral Spiritual and Religious Care in Health) and the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplaincy Code of Conduct. Free Church chaplains are encouraged to be registered with the UK Board of Healthcare Chaplains.
The Chaplaincy bodies sitting on the Healthcare Chaplaincy Forum have produced additional guidance on chaplaincy staffing ratios to complement NHS England’s Chaplaincy guidance.
“At its best, our National Health Service is there when we need it, at the most profound moments in our lives. At the birth of our children. At the deaths of our loved ones. And at every stage in between - as we grapple with hope, fear, loneliness, compassion - some of the most fundamental elements of the human spirit.”
Revd Dr Mark Newitt
SECRETARY FOR HEALTHCARE CHAPLAINCY, FREE CHURCHES
Tel: 0203 651 8332
Email: mark.newitt@freechurches.org.uk
Mark provides the leadership on Healthcare Chaplaincy work at a national level for the Free Churches as well as in a multi-faith context.
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