In praise of hospital chaplains
By Mark Vernon on Sunday, October 7 2007, 10:53 - In the news - Permalink
I know a couple of hospital chaplains. They are that rare thing in the contemporary NHS: professionals paid to spend time with people. Except that because they are so rare, the pressures on their most precious commodity are immense.
It is also quite clear that spending time with people is crucial in the healing process. There's been a lot in the press recently about alternative medicine like homeopathy. Whatever you make of the science behinds these treatments, or lack of it, everyone seems to agree that inasmuch as they work, they offer patients quality time - or as Ben Goldacre puts it: 'itÂ’s about the cultural meaning of the treatment'; and that is beneficial.
An anecdote. Knowing these hospital chaplains, when my partner went in for open heart surgery, we asked one to annoint him the evening before the operation. It stilled us - so much so that when we later spoke with the anesthetist, my partner having agree to take part in a trial of some new delivery mechanism, he commented how physically still he had been on the operating table. Apparently, many thrash about all over the place; they have to be more heavily sedated and they tend to take longer to recover.
Which is why I am quite prepared to go along with the Theos research published today, that charts the cuts in funding of hospital chaplains, by up to half over two years in one NHS Trust. Apart from anything else, this is just bad for health.
The National Secular Society doesn't see it like that. According to the Theos website, the president Terry Sanderson argues that the taxpayer should pay for doctors and nurses alone, not chaplains. Bring on the cuts!
But that is an ideological comment and one that orientates the care of human beings exclusively towards the care of their bodies. That is crucial, of course! When my partner had his surgury, we wanted someone with great skill at doing heart value replacements, not someone with good bedside manner (though as it happened he had enough of that too). But then, as we learnt, there was more to his recovery than the success of the physical procedure alone.
Apart from the spiritually-based care hospital chaplains offer, they are also a clear reminder within the NHS that patients are made of mind and spirit too. As individuals, doctors and nurses know that. But they don't have much time. And the worry is that at an institutional level, the NHS is in danger of forgetting it.
Comments
I hate the commodification of the health service, where people are treated like objects being done to at a certain cost. Compare how much bed managers are paid in the NHS. I fully approve of hospital chaplains and medical staff who are aware of holistic treatment, who resepct people for their spirituality and give people time.
I have no particular beef with hospital chaplains, and would agree with you and Ben Goldacre from my own personal experiences. However, why don't the church pay their salaries? Surely ministering to the sick is something religious bodies should be willing to fund from their own pockets, without needing state funding that is already under pressure.
I am sure the church would say it is strapped for cash too! However, the better point would be that hospital chaplains are good for health and recovery, and so are a good use of NHS money.
Churches should not have to pay chaplains' salaries since chaplains do not represent any one religious belief system. They support spirituality, not religiosity. Just like "all crows are birds, but not all birds are crows...", spirituality does not always involve religion.
If that was the case then there would be no need to have chaplains of different faiths, as there are.
I'm sure for a lot of people, if they see a chaplain approaching, they are going to be convinced they are going to die - which is unlikely to help the healing process.
Chaplains are salespersons for their own belief systems - I don't see what they should be subsidised to promote their goods - no matter what nice chaps they are.
Mark: Glad to read that your partner came through the surgery well.
I am saddened by some of the comments in response to what you wrote. While some "chaplains" may be salespersons for their own belief systems, these are not chaplains who have been trained and certified. Proselytizers do not make the grade - and should not.
Fear at sighting the chaplain is not an uncommon response. Fortunately, it is not difficult to allay.