High-stress carers need support
This article was first published in The Melbourne Anglican on 11 February 2025.
Chaplains working on the frontline of life and death experience trauma and burnout that can affect their capacity to care for sick, elderly and vulnerable people, researchers say.
Melbourne School of Theology, Ridley College and the University of Melbourne researchers believe programs and training that better support ministry workers need to be developed.
Mental health social worker Dr Katherine Thompson said ministers who worked in contexts like the mission field or hospitals experienced a higher rate of depression and anxiety because they were exposed to more stress at a higher level than general society.
She said it was unrealistic to think people in ministry were not going to struggle with things like anxiety and depression and organisations needed to develop their mental health literacy.
Hospital chaplain Reverend Dawn Treloar said it was important to realise that chaplains tended not to work full-time roles because they needed additional time in their lives away from work so they could work effectively.
She said when she began working as a chaplain vicarious trauma wasn’t spoken about, but the sector was beginning to accept it was something chaplains faced.
As an experienced chaplain Mrs Treloar has learned to be aware of what causes vicarious trauma and how to manage it.
“I retreat to a safe space regularly on my days off,” she said. “I retreat to my garden and the bird life and that nurtures my soul so that I can be present in a trauma ward or palliative care or wherever I’m called to and deal with what’s there.”
She said chaplains were trained to deal with trauma and had continued professional supervision.
“It doesn’t mean you don’t experience anxiety, but you know what to do with it,” Mrs Treloar said.
She said chaplains who experience burnout needed to be loved through it.
Police chaplain Reverend Dr Andrew Mellor said police chaplains needed to be careful in planning their wellbeing, both how they looked after themselves and allowed others to look after them.
“We approach what we do with a strong appreciation that the reality of those we are caring for is their reality and our reality is different,” he said.
“As a part of that, [chaplains need to] celebrate their reality, celebrate who they are and who’s around them, so that they can live into that when they are confronted by significant things,” he said.
Dr Mellor said his approach came directly from his personal faith and having a genuine daily discipline of being thankful.
“My reality is who I am in Christ…I celebrate the people around me. I see them as a gift from God,” he said.
Aged care chaplain Reverend Kirsty Brown said a part of her process was to recognise the limits of what she can do.
“I can’t heal the trauma, but I can sit alongside,” she said. “Before I have a conversation, I always give that conversation to God. And then as I leave, I also give it back to God.”
Dr Thompson said churches needed to reframe the way they thought about mental illness and how they invested in ministers’ wellbeing.
“For me, it’s looking forward and having a preventative, caring and protective sort of framework for people going into ministry,” she said.
Image: Chaplains give comfort at times of distress. Picture: iStock
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