Chaplain Derek Brown, D. Min., on Scotland’s Chaplaincy

Healthcare Chaplaincy in Scotland

I’m always struck by the fact that although different countries organise the delivery of spiritual care in vastly different ways, the common denominator is the care of the patient in the bed or the relatives in the waiting room. How we act and what we say at these critical moments is remarkably similar throughout the healthcare chaplaincy world, and despite organisational variations I’m pretty sure that most chaplains could slot in almost anywhere. Having said that let me tell you about how things are in my small corner of the globe.

Scotland has seen some major changes in the provision of spiritual care over recent years. One of the major vehicles for this was the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, which now oversees Health directly from Edinburgh. The government issued a directive in 2002 that instructed the main providers of healthcare in Scotland, the fifteen regional Health Boards, to write spiritual care policies in keeping with the guidelines that were issued at the time. These guidelines recognised the importance of spiritual and religious care and stressed the ecumenical and multi-faith dimension of care, as well as the needs of those who do not actively belong to faith communities.

There are at present 60 full-time chaplains, as well as about 350 part-time chaplains. Most are appointed to care for the spiritual needs of the whole healthcare community, but some may be appointed to look after the needs of a particular faith group. All chaplains are employed by the National Health Service (NHS), but because they are not recognised in law as a healthcare profession, the data protection legislation only permits them to know who is in hospital if they have given informed consent. The anomalous position then arises in hospices where a chaplain must be part of a multidisciplinary team and is expected to have access to and write in patient notes. There is still much work to be done to ensure that all chaplains are seen as valued members of the healthcare team.

We have been very fortunate in Scotland to have had the Training and Development Unit of healthcare chaplaincy joining the special NHS Education Board, which has a remit to train and educate all healthcare professionals. This has seen the status of spiritual care rise considerably within the healthcare community as the unit has promoted and developed several important pieces of work:

• A Multi-faith Resource for Healthcare Staff (2006)
• Standards for NHS Scotland Chaplaincy Services (2007)
• Religion and Belief Matter: An information resource for Healthcare Staff (2007)
• Spiritual and Religious Care Capabilities and Competencies for Healthcare Chaplains (2008)

As there is currently no defined route of entry into chaplaincy, other than through the ordained ministry, work is also underway on developing postgraduate training and continuing professional development. These and other strands of work on things like the chaplaincy Code of Conduct and Fitness to Practice procedures mean that chaplaincy is well on the way to becoming a self-regulated healthcare profession in readiness for becoming, in time, a statutorily recognised one.

All in all it’s an exciting time to be involved in chaplaincy in Scotland, though it’s not without challenges. But given the ongoing work and dedicated personnel around the country, I’m confident that the people of Scotland will be well served for many years to come.

For more information on the Scottish Association of Chaplains in Healthcare, please visit our Web site: http://www.sach.org.uk/index.htm

Do you have thoughts about advocacy you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.