| SACH Scottish Association of Chaplains in Healthcare |
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SACH
Soundings
The President turns to verse (or worse?) There's no doubt in my mind I have thought long and hard So be gone registration! ‘How is that?' You all cry. We'll all be consultants
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Adapting to change – whose agenda? On Wednesday 9 March SACH held a spring gathering in Perth. This was a chance to meet and share with colleagues new and old. It was also an opportunity to explore the changing landscape of chaplaincy. About 30 chaplains (whole and part-time) gathered from all corners of Scotland (including the Western Isles!). During the morning Sandy Young, lead chaplain at Lothian Acute Division, gave a very thought-provoking presentation on changes within healthcare chaplaincy in Lothian. After lunch Keith Saunders (Glasgow Western Infirmary and Gartnavel General) and Jim Allardyce (Wishaw General) spoke briefly of their experiences of change and there was general discussion in plenary. For more detailed accounts of the presentations, look up the SACH website at |
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A date for your diaryThe Association AGM will be held on Monday 24th October 2005 10.30am – 3.30pm Education & Conference Centre Stirling Royal Infirmary
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Amazon Hope 2—UK Coastal Tour 2005 Amazonferry is a partnership between the Vine Trust of Bo'ness, a Scottish charity and SUPeru which is delivering hope and health to street children and marginalised communities in Peru. Currently the work is focussed on the capitol city of Lima, the Amazon city of Iquitos and tens of thousands of people who live on the Amazon and its tributaries.
The Amazon Hope Medical Project . In the Autumn of 2001 an ex Royal Navy Fleet tender was acquired and sent by the Vine Trust to assist in the development of relief work amongst marginalised communities in the Peruvian Amazon. The aim was for this vessel to serve as a ferry to generate income to support work amongst street children in the city of Iquitos, whilst at the same time delivering a basic health service to rural communities otherwise remote from such assistance.
Medical teams go out to work on the Amazon Hope throughout the year. Last summer, the first British medical team made the trip and they were all from Fife! The team of eight - comprising 3 doctors, a nurse, 2 dentists, a pharmacist and a school teacher generated a great deal of interest and support for the project from local churches and amongst staff in the Fife hospitals.
A second boat has recently been refitted and aptly named Amazon Hope 2. This summer the boat is embarking on a promotional sail around the UK coast. The Amazon Hope 2 will be visiting various communities around the British Isles with a view to raising awareness of the project work and recruiting volunteers for further medical teams and forthcoming work parties in Peru. I have volunteered to join the crew as a deck hand for a week in September. I'll be sailing from Aberdeen to Fort William, via Inverness. When in port the boat will be open to the public and I'll be involved with showing visitors around and keeping them safe! In anticipation of my week at sea I hope to raise some funds for the Vine Trust projects and to bring their work to the attention of staff around the Kirkcaldy hospitals. With an occasional stall in the main hospital entrance over the summer months, I plan to sell home bakes - hopefully generating funds and attracting interest! I'll also have publicity leaflets on hand, as well as photos of the Fife team's Peruvian adventure last summer and video clips of the Amazon Ferry project work, in the hope of recruiting a doctor or two or indeed other staff for the next UK medical team.
Ian McDonald |
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Reorganisation at “121” I am pleased to report that as part of the reorganisation of boards and committees at the Church of Scotland Offices I have been appointed as a Ministries Support Officer. My main responsibility will be Monitoring, Support & Training for Chaplaincies. Additionally I will be planning and administering Continuing Ministries Education, providing support for Candidates' Training Programme and co-ordinating Ecumenical Contacts & Relations. In day to day matters I do not envisage that my working relationships with chaplains will alter to any great extent. I will remain your first point of contact though I am unsure at present as to the extent of the support I will receive from the new “Chaplaincies Task Group.” It is likely that it will have a different remit to that previously undertaken by the now defunct Hospitals, Healthcare and Universities Sub-Committee. I will however benefit from the knowledge and experience of my immediate senior colleague at Associate Secretary level within the Council staff. Transfer of Employment Responsibility The NHS Forum responded to the proposal for direct employment and appointment of chaplains indicating that local human resources capacity is focussed on existing priorities and the capability to absorb further change is extremely minimal. Additionally the Forum has concerns that the proposal has not been costed. The short life working group has replied by making clear that it can minimise the burden by doing much of the work on behalf of local HR Systems and has provided details of the financial implications. Despite attempts by church representatives and others on the short life working group to maintain the momentum towards a national agreement on transfer of employment, the process has stalled somewhat. However, independently, one Health Board is filling any vacancies arising by direct employment, a second is seeking to transfer the employment of whole-time chaplaincy staff and a third is close to transferring all Church of Scotland appointed chaplains to NHS employment. I still remain optimistic that the process of transferring responsibility for the employment of healthcare chaplains will be completed in due course and give you the assurance that the relevant staff members (of the Council of Ministries) will continue to be pro-active in their resolve to ensure that the negotiations with the NHS Forum via the short life working group are resumed. John K Thomson |
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Recruitment … Recruitment … Recruitment Membership of SACH has grown steadily over the years. It is important that growth continues if SACH is to develop as an organization. Remember that each of us has a responsibility to encourage new chaplains to join our association. I am always happy to send out leaflets about SACH and back copies of the Journal to any prospective members. Monica Stewart |
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Scratchings from the Training and Development Officer Sometimes I wonder what there is to say. Sometimes it is what to leave out, today is the latter. At a conference in Wales I was invited to present what was happening in Scotland, and so I was able to talk about the HDL, the way Health Boards had been asked to incorporate spiritual care as a meaningful element of healthcare provision, about spiritual care becoming part of performance assessment, about spiritual care committees in each health board area, about conferences and discussions concerning the development of training and education, about a person centred, culturally competent, non judgemental approach, about the relationships shared with Patient Focus Public Involvement and Equality and Diversity from the Scottish Executive Health Department, and about some of the difficulties chaplains and others were facing in trying to implement all this in a resources scarce environment. The conference delegates appeared to be quite amazed and wondered how this was happening. Sometimes we forget how far things have moved in a few years and another person's perspective can be very encouraging. On March 10 th we hosted a day primarily for lead managers in spiritual care from all the boards. Only three out of 23 were not represented and they shared what was happening in their areas, listened intently while Harriet Mowatt launched the results of the research project entitled “What do chaplains do?”, heard about the relationship between spiritual care and the other diversity elements such as disability, ethnic minority, age , gender and sexual orientation. In discussion groups they looked at the possibilities and restraints in this area of work. (A report of this can be found on the web site) April 28 th was a study day when around 30 chaplains from all over the country met , heard and discussed issues around “the beginning and end of life”. Two academics, Prof Nick Watson and Dr Charlotte Pearson presented preliminary finding of research into issues of resuscitation and disability, Dr David Oxenham spoke as a palliative care consultant with Marie Curie and Dr Kenneth Collins a Glasgow GP gave us a Jewish perspective. On May 5 th a conference was held for managers, clinical staff and lead chaplains to launch the report of the scoping group with QIS (Quality Improvement Scotland) into the present provision and awareness of spiritual care and chaplaincy, and through looking at recent research, to begin asking the question, can there be clinical standards for spiritual care or should we be looking rather at good practice statements? Around 90 people attended this day and the report will be made more widely available later in the summer. QIS seemed willing to work with us and we look forward to doing that over the next few years. My last two days have been very inter faith in that on Monday, along with a few others I was invited to an audience with Dadi Janki who is a leading light in the Brahma Kumaris world university of spirituality and the Janki Foundation for Global Healthcare. It was a fascinating meeting with a small eighty year old lady imparting to us her thoughts and the story of her life. On Tuesday I took part in a day which looked at Islam and Muslims and at the reasons for Islamophobia in the media and elsewhere. Along with a group from various backgrounds we heard and discussed the place and central points of Islam, and were treated to lunch at Glasgow Central Mosque. On a more personal basis I'm pleased to be able to report that the Unit has become part of NHS Education (NES). This makes us part of a national health board and I believe the right one for the long-term work. In July we will move physically to the new Glasgow NES office at 2 Central Quay at the Broomielaw, near the SECC, and we will circulate our new address, email , telephone etc when that happens. The Unit will continue to have the twin remit of Chaplaincy Training and Development, and of advising, resourcing and aiding boards and the department in matters of spiritual and religious care in NHS Scotland. Meg Hislop will be leaving the unit in summer to pursue further study as a secondary French teacher, and I'm most grateful for all she has done during her time with us. Hopefully we will manage to recruit a replacement. Chris Levison Training & Development Officer |
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can find this (and previous) editions of SACH Soundings in full colour
on the SACH Website: www.sach.org.uk/news.htm If you would like to receive the colour version of SACH Soundings by E-mail in Acrobat PDF Format, send your E-mail address to: Fred.Coutts@sach.org.uk |
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The next edition of SACH Soundings will be
published in September 2005.
Tel: 01224
553166 |
