Paul Hurst, with his background in business, psychotherapy and psychology, uses a wealth of knowledge and research to question some of the assumptions and norms in Chaplaincy.  We try to focus on the significance of the Chaplaincy website as a digital gateway: it signals how open a service feels and whether it is for me. However our discussion segues off many different avenues of discussion including the experience of non-religious colleagues in teams, the importance of allowing a person to define their own beliefs, the joy in helping people find their own resolutions and connections, the downsides of signalling one belief as the norm, and the envisioning a future that evolves from need rather than history. Paul's analysis of chaplaincy websites with his checklist / grid for evaluating your site can be found here and he made a rather rash offer to evaluate your site for you if you contact him.

We start this conversation with Karen Murphy (recent president of the AHPCC) by charting the changes in chaplaincy as it moves towards an accredited profession, but recognising the pitfalls in making this route easier for some than others. Inclusion must remain a priority and we reflect a little on how to work across beliefs rather than in silos, always being cautious and humble about our own contributions.  Karen has recently retired after a 6 year term at president of the AHPCC and she works at an independent hospice in Weston-Super-Mare with a particular interest in how to bring chaplaincy and spiritual care into the community. We share some practice examples of delivering person-centred care in acute and hospice settings, thinking about how they differ. Karen speaks about three main challenges going forward: the recognition of changes in beliefs in the UK with an ever growing number (majority) of people who are non-religious; the location and integration of chaplaincy and spiritual care in wider organisational systems and approaches (how we are seen and used); and the need to gather evidence of our place and value in holistic services in order to show impact and demonstrate evidence based practice.

Apologies for some technical problems with this recording - we are learning rapidly how to improve what we do without getting too hung up on getting it perfect.

In this episode we discuss the circumstances in which chaplains may be called and what expectations and assumptions may lie behind those requests. Often there is an association of the chaplain with end of life; we are called to offer staff advice and patients comfort. But this association can also create anxiety if a patient thinks the chaplain is visiting them because they are going to die. With staff on wards key gatekeepers in referring patients to chaplaincy /spiritual care services, we muse over how their own worldviews and perceptions may influence their use of the service. We explore in what other circumstances chaplains play their part such as MDTs, safeguarding and even security and start to consider some differences for chaplains between acute care, hospice care and mental health services. 

In this episode Stig and Jo discuss wider concepts of prayer which is highly individualistic and which may be private or public, spontaneous or ritualistic. We consider what 'prayer' might mean to people? How might we pray or not pray with those we meet? What spaces can be made for prayer or spiritual connection? If one function of prayer is well-wishing and comfort, how can we all assist in this, regardless of our own beliefs? 

By far and away, most chaplains are religious people and yet we know that conversations are frequently not at all religious in nature, and indeed that many people we meet do not describe themselves as religious.  Our conversation considers how religion is only part of what we offer, how you don't need to be matched by religion to have meaningful connections, and indeed whether the name 'chaplain' can trip us up.