GP Chaplaincy Update – Sarah Gough
I am thankful for the prayers and support from the St John’s Church family as I continue to work to develop the field of GP / Primary Healthcare Chaplaincy, alongside Ross and Liz Bryson and Fiona Collins who continue to build on the foundations they laid many years ago.
We have much to be thankful to God for as He has continued to provide and bless our efforts to use Chaplaincy in Primary Healthcare as a means to reach those in need, journey alongside and show the love and compassion of Jesus.
Our most recent venture has been the hosting of a national conference at the University of Birmingham on 10th January: ‘’Hope Bearers’: Primary Healthcare Chaplaincy responding to mental health and spiritual needs’, which provided us with a significant opportunity to increase awareness of the value and effectiveness of Primary Healthcare Chaplaincy. We were able to welcome over 100 delegates from a variety of backgrounds. We were particularly excited to have a number of church leaders attend as we pray into the idea of churches seeing this work as an opportunity for mission within their local communities.
The day involved presentations from:
- Rev Prof Christoper Cook – ‘Patient-centred spirituality in mental healthcare’
- Patrick Regan OBE – ‘A personal perspective on spiritual factors and mental health: finding hope in brokenness’
- Dr David Smart & Dr Paul Turner – ‘Unhealthy primary mental healthcare’
- Helen Watts – ‘Primary Healthcare Chaplaincy: What are we doing?’
It also included interactive seminar sessions and plenty of networking time. As a relatively new field, many GP Chaplains work individually and are spread across the country, so the conference provided a great opportunity to develop connections, both with other chaplains and those interested in exploring the idea.
We have been so encouraged by the positive feedback from the event and are excited to see how God will use the interest and awareness generated. This brings challenges too as we continue to trust in God’s provision to enable us to meet the demand that this generates. We are a small charity and will need to grow in order to keep pace. Please pray that we find the additional capacity required as well as the finances needed to support this.
The other aspect of my role involves working with WholeCare, a charity which provides Primary Healthcare Chaplaincy services to GP Practices. We employ GP Chaplains, in both paid and unpaid capacities, and ‘partner’ them with GP Practices. We have an amazing team of chaplains who give so much to support and care for their patients. Some patients have gone on to engage with their local church or accessed support through church-based groups such as Kintsugi Hope and bereavement courses. It is so encouraging to see how God can use this to draw people closer to Him!
We have recently received a huge answer to prayer through the provision of NHS funding to pay the salary costs of our chaplains working with St Heliers Medical Practice in Northfield! This has given our chaplains huge encouragement to know the Practice values the support they are offering to their patients as well as affirming that God is blessing what we are working to achieve. Please continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will equip our chaplains as they meet with patients, to help them discern how best to show Jesus’ love and compassion and when it is appropriate to offer prayer and share Scripture.
Please also pray for wisdom as we seek to develop our existing services and initiate new ones with new GP Practices and that God will provide the finances and additional support required (both chaplains and organisationally).
And, most importantly, please pray for the patients benefitting from the support GP Chaplains offer, that they will feel encouraged, loved and accepted. The impact can be summed up by these patient testimonies:
“I have learnt so much about myself and God. I feel I’m stronger than ever before, and what an amazing grace to experience hardship and come out the other end.”
“I was not in a good place at all when I first met the chaplain. She listened, she understood and she was so kind. I had years of mixed emotions that I needed to let go and she was perfect in every way.”