Chaplaincy for the non-religious

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The population of New Zealand is changing – and not just because there are more of us, including many new immigrants, or because people are living longer. The other great change is that fewer people are religious and New Zealand is increasingly secular.

Nurses recognise the importance of holistic care, part of which is religious, spiritual or pastoral support, but are we delivering this properly? As a nurse and humanist, I firmly believe we're not.

The 2013 census showed 42 per cent of the population were not religious.1 The data also showed the proportion of Christians had decreased. The religious groups that had increased were Sikh, Muslim and Hindu, reflecting the immigration of people from Asia. Independent research done last year by the faith-based Wilberforce Foundation showed the non-religious proportion of the population had increased to 55 per cent.2 The 2018 census data isn't available yet.

Hospital chaplaincy is the responsibility of the Interchurch Council for Hospital Chaplaincy (ICHC). ICHC has held a contract with the Ministry of Health to provide chaplaincy services to district health boards since 1993. The council comprises representatives from nine Christian churches. It can hardly be argued that this fairly recognises the differing beliefs of the religious population, never mind the spiritual feelings of the non-religious.

Chaplains are usually ordained Christians, who have undergone additional training to work as chaplains. They provide support for people of all religions or no religion. Working alongside the salaried chaplains are volunteer lay people. These volunteers, too, have been trained to speak with believers and nonbelievers. All hospital chaplaincy services have contact lists of people available to talk with those from specific Christian denominations, such as Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons. There will also be contacts for other religions, such as Islam or Judaism. So why isn't there one for the non-religious?

The chaplains and their co-working volunteers are trained to speak with people of no religion. I have no doubt many of these people have done so, and it has been of help to the patients involved. However, there is no service offered for those who are not religious and do not want to talk with a religious person about their spiritual needs, feelings or goals. An example of this is a homosexual man who feels that, throughout his adult life, the church has condemned and opposed him.3 There is no expectation that people who are Hindu, Buddhist or Baha'i should talk with a Christian chaplain. Similarly, there should be no expectation that the non-religious should only speak with a religious person at a time of need.

UK survey results

A recent survey by Humanists UK showed 62 per cent of the religious people who took part were in favour of non-religious pastoral support workers.4 The survey also showed that non-religious people felt far more likely to access pastoral and spiritual services if non-religious support workers were available.4 I intend repeating this survey in New Zealand.

The Netherlands has had non-religious pastoral support available in hospitals, universities, prisons and the armed forces since the late 1950s. About 70 percent of Dutch people are not religious. The hospital chaplains are non-religious and offer pastoral and spiritual support to everyone. If a patient is religious, the appropriate religious person will be asked to come in to address the patient's needs.

The United Kingdom now has three salaried non-religious pastoral care providers. Somewhat surprisingly, one of them is the chaplaincy and pastoral care service manager for a National Health Service hospital trust. Less surprisingly, she is from the Netherlands and has given me a great deal of information over the last nine months.5 In addition to the three paid staff, there are several hundred volunteer support workers.

New Zealand is changing in many ways and pastoral support provided to patients needs to change too. The system, as it stands, may be seen to be unconsciously discriminatory. I believe the failure to provide non-religious pastoral or spiritual support for non-religious people is a breach of the Human Rights Act 1993 Section 21(d). This failure also breaches the Health and Disability Commissioner's code of rights 1(3).

When an increasing number of people are not religious, “hospitals can't simply neglect them by providing religious chaplaincy and nothing else”. (Humanists UK 2019).

Colin Woodhouse, RN, PGDipHSci, works on a neurosciences ward at Christchurch Hospital. He aims to write a thesis on this subject for a master's in health sciences.

References

Humanists UK 2017 https://humanism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Humanists-UK-polling-on-pastoral-care-in-the-UK.pdf

Humanists UK 2019 https://humanism.org.uk/2019/03/19/the-art-of-listening-an-interview-with-humanist-pastoral-carer-lindsay-van-dijk/

Savage, D. (2019). Non-religious pastoral care: A practical guide. London. Routledge.

Stats NZ (2014) http://archive.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census.aspx

Wilberforce Foundation (2018) https://faithandbeliefstudynz.org/