Scottish Association of Chaplains in Healthcare, SACH Soundings 13 March 2003

The meetings are prolific and, we hope, productive. Health Boards all over the country are getting down to work on the Guidelines and trying to see what they will mean in practice. We will keep you informed through Training Matters, study days and conferences. It is our hope that chaplains and others will feel involved and able to make valuable contributions to the eventual policies and plans.
Three recent days may be of some interest.

On 23 January Andrew and I were involved in a study day for Roman Catholic chaplains in Glasgow. This was set up at the invitation of Bishop Mario Conti who had hoped to be present but unfortunately was unable on the day. We looked at the Guidelines and the implications for those present. A major worry is the lack of priests to fulfil the work and yet this might be an encouragement for more lay people to be trained for chaplaincy service. There are on call issues with chaplains assigned to large hospitals having an especially heavy on call work load. In the afternoon Anne Harper spoke on her situation as a generic chaplain and the joys and tribulations of a somewhat under resourced team. Dr Sheila McGettrick, a consultant at the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice spoke of their work and the need for chaplaincy and spiritual care in this context. It was a worthwhile day and I hope made clear both the possibilities from the guidelines and the ecumenical, all faith and “no particular faith” responsibilities of chaplaincy today.

On 4 February the second “Talking Spirituality” course was held in Glasgow. Unfortunately Harriet Mowatt was snowbound in Inverness but Desmond Ryan led the day with Mary Thomas. This course helps chaplains to think about how to teach spirituality to staff and others and it does so in a variety of ways – talking, listening, group work and reflecting. I don’t think they will mind too much if I suggest that they are conveying that spirituality must be “felt and smel’t as much as it is tel’t” – an obvious title for next year’s health care spirituality best seller novel! The next “Talking Spirituality” is in Inverness on 6th May.

The 11 February saw a new study day dealing with how and why we recruit, train and use volunteers. There were around 18 present and in the morning we introduced ourselves and explained why we had come, looked at some basic issues and heard from Gillian Munro how the Aberdeen model of volunteering works. Following buzz groups which refused to stop on the first time of asking, we continued after lunch with input from Bryan Bannerman the Voluntary Services Manager from Glasgow South Trust who told us about attitudes and regulations surrounding volunteering today. Four chaplaincy volunteers then made up a panel and talked on how they had got into such work, how they had been trained, what they did and how they enjoyed it. We looked at some of the material which has been produced as a “volunteers health care chaplaincy resource” by the Hospital Chaplaincies Council and discussed how we would improve it.
It was an interesting day and the evaluations were generally very appreciative. There was one however (isn’t there always) who had circled the number 5 in every case. (Totally irrelevant and unhelpful!) Was he/she having a bad day? Had he/she come to the wrong conference? Or as I like to think, had he/she read the options upside down and really intended to say that the whole thing was excellent.? We’ll never know – unless, that is, you come forward and tell us!

Chris Levison

Healthcare Chaplaincy
Training and Development Unit
Queen's Park House
Victoria Infirmary
Langside Road
Glasgow G42 9TT
Telephone: 0141 201 5392
Fax: 0141 201 5614
Mobile: 07768 023385
E-mail: chris.levison@chaplains.co.uk

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