Vision
1800Chaplain – caring always
1800chaplain is a nationwide toll-free service offering confidential chaplaincy support to everyone.
A safe and confidential forum that takes a holistic view of the person’s emotions, stressors, challenges and moral dilemmas, where they need not shy away from deeper questions about their life, their relationships, their faith or their sense of purpose.
Long before the COVID-19 spike in demand for various Helplines, Chaplaincy Australia identified the escalating need for quality chaplaincy to be available on-call and after hours. This has been repeatedly relayed to the organisation by its national network of chaplains and over 1000 churches. Crisis services such as Lifeline have been fast-tracking volunteers and shortening their training program from 14 to 4 weeks.
1800CHAPLAIN can alleviate this by offering earlier intervention, before the person experiences suicidal ideation. All Chaplaincy Australia’s fully accredited chaplains have achieved at least a Certificate IV in Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care or progressed to a Higher Education Diploma of Chaplaincy with 100 hours of a supervised placement.
This training coupled with specific 1800Chaplain training prepares the call-team to connect with the person for a friendly chat to discuss life’s everyday challenges. This after-hours and on-call service will fill a growing hunger for preventative pastoral care. By providing this point of difference, these resources will take pressure off the lifesaving crisis help lines.
When
We will be launching on 15 Nov 2021 with an 8hr per day service which will grow to 24/7 as needs present and resources allow.
Keep an eye on this page for further updates as the project develops.
How do I become involved
Click here to register your interest (to go to online form)
Contact
Email [email protected] for further information
FAQs
What is 1800Chaplain?
1800Chaplain is a a new toll-free service which aims to accommodate the needs of people seeking Chaplaincy support.
Chaplaincy Care is not counselling and at no point will our call team be providing counselling services – they will be offering all the services that a Chaplain provides in their normal roles: pastoral care: a listening ear; an opportunity to talk about life issues; an opportunity to talk about grief and loss; care in the midst of loneliness and despair; conversations regarding meaning and purpose and; issues of faith and understanding (when raised by the caller). They will be offering connection with another human who is able to help the caller find support, comfort, reassurance and, where needed, referral to other services.
When will 1800Chaplain be operating?
1800Chaplain is expected to launch on 15th November 2021 – the first calls will be taken at 2pm AEDT.
From then on we will be operating from 2-10pm each day.
We hope to move to 16 hours a day in a few months time and then 24hrs per day as soon as we can.
What is Chaplaincy?
Chaplaincy is a well-established ministry of presence and care which has been practiced in a wide variety of secular and culturally diverse organisations and institutions for many years including hospitals, age care, prisons, emergency services, armed forces, schools, universities, sporting clubs, social services and more recently within workplaces.
How is 1800Chaplain different to Lifeline?
1800Chaplain is a safe and confidential forum that takes a holistic view of the person’s emotions, stressors, challenges and moral dilemmas, where they need not shy away from deeper questions about their life, their relationships, their faith or their sense of purpose.
The goal is not to replace, compete with, or even to mirror services such as LifeLine.
We want to provide a Pastoral Care Line that provides ‘lower level’ care than would be normally escalated to life saving counselling lines.
We anticipate that we may be able to ease the burden currently faced by crisis lines by providing care prior to this level of escalation.
The work of Lifeline is to celebrated and appreciated and could never be replicated.
Who is 1800Chaplain for?
1800Chaplain is available to anyone in the Australian community
1800Chaplain is staffed by full qualified Chaplains, who hold accreditation with Chaplaincy Australia. All Chaplaincy Australia’s fully accredited Chaplains have achieved at least a Certificate IV in Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care or progressed to a Higher Education Diploma of Chaplaincy with 100 hours of a supervised placement. On top of this training, they will undertake additional 1800Chaplain training that will include a refresher of all basic chaplaincy concepts, specific skills training for work on the telephone, clear reinforcement of the limits of care to be provided; crisis response techniques, and extensive referral skills training.
Are calls to 1800Chaplain confidential?
Yes. All conversations are strictly confidential. None of our calls are recorded.
What is a Chaplain?
Chaplains are well trained, caring professionals who are accredited for the task. They are called into ministry due to a great passion to care for and reach out to people who are experiencing pain, distress and suffering in their lives. They stand with people on their worst days and offer caring non-judgemental support. Trained to provide referral to mental health services and other professionals / support agencies they complement the welfare strategy of the organisation in which they are embedded.
Do chaplains proselytise religious beliefs?
No!
The role of the chaplain is not to proselytise any set of particular religious or denominational beliefs although chaplains will respond to spiritual conversations, if initiated or invited, by a caller who feels that such discussion is necessary for their emotional or spiritual wellbeing.
In such situations, any response given shall be handled with great care and in a manner which is culturally appropriate and sensitive to a person’s beliefs, philosophy of life and in accordance with a strict code of conduct.
Chaplain Specific Questions
Q: Will the caller be able to see the Chaplain’s personal mobile number?
A: The Chaplain’s personal details will be kept private, the caller won’t see their personal mobile number or any other identifying details.
Q: Will there be access to debriefing for the Chaplains?
A: There will be a team leader on every shift to provide immediate debrief and support if needed, and further follow up will be made available for any significant event.
Q: What documentation will be required after taking a call?
A: There will be a separate app for recording brief, de-identified details of the conversation, all of this will be covered in the training for the call team before they are deployed.
