Pastoral, Spiritual and Religious Care

Religion and belief are a protected characteristic under equality and diversity legislation. Respecting and supporting the spiritual and religious needs of those in our patients and colleagues is a collective responsibility of the whole Trust.

The Chaplaincy Team is made up of professional chaplains and chaplaincy volunteers, who support patients, hospital staff as well as those visiting their loved ones. They are people of faith, and work with an ethos of person-centred care, to offer pastoral, spiritual and or religious care to people of any faith or of none. They believe that faith and belief can make a very positive difference in difficult times.

What can we do for you?

The team can provide specialist, compassionate and non-judgemental listening. They can provide a safe space for difficult stories and emotions to be shared. Among the areas where chaplains often offer care are:

• bereavement
• pregnancy loss
• end-of-life issues
• facing distressing news
• care of the dying and of their relatives
• the effects of sudden death.

As appropriate, they can provide prayer and certain religious acts.

They can sign-post you to similar sorts of support in the community and help to call in a faith-leader from a variety of faiths, in urgent situations.

They are a resource for all sorts of religious artefacts such as scriptures; prayer beads; prayer mats and can help advise staff wanting to better support the religious needs of their patients or colleagues.

Our chapel

The chapel is opposite the Osteoporosis Unit (Blue Zone, Level 2). This is a shared space for people of all faith and belief backgrounds and for staff, patients and visitors. The doors are always open. We have a place for prayer requests and a memorial book.