Chaplains Work in Primary Care

Snowden, Austyn; Telfer, Iain; Vandenhoeck, Anne; Verhoef, Joost; Gibbon, Alan

Abstract

Health is holistic, but health services are often not. Primary care is the first point of contact for patients in the UK, and at least two in every three present with complex bio-psycho-socio-economic issues. In Scotland, the Community Chaplaincy Listening (CCL) service was created to see if chaplains could help. CCL involves specially trained chaplains listening to patients referred to them by general practitioners (GP) for spiritual support. Between 2018 and 2019, 143 people used CCL and completed baseline and post-discharge outcome measures. Mean Scottish PROM scores rose from 7.94 (± 3.4) at baseline to 12 (± 3.5) post discharge, a statistically and clinically significant rise of 4.06 (95% CI, 3–5.12), t(50) = 7.7, p < 0.0001, d = 1.08. The improvement was seen whether patients self-described as religious, spiritual, both, or neither. Health-related quality of life outcomes were mixed but patients referred to the service scored some of the lowest baseline EQ-5D-3L scores ever seen in the literature. Together these results suggest that CCL worked in primary care, especially for patients historically considered “difficult to treat.” Limitations of the study are considered alongside implications for commissioners and service developers.

Citation

Snowden, A., Telfer, I., Vandenhoeck, A., Verhoef, J., & Gibbon, A. (2023). Chaplains Work in Primary Care. Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy, 29(2), 211-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2022.2077555

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 11, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jun 11, 2022
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: May 17, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 11, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Health Care Chaplaincy
• Print ISSN: 0885-4726
• Electronic ISSN: 1528-6916
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 211-228
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2022.2077555
• Keywords: Chaplain, measurement, outcome, primary care, quantitative
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2872350