Anna Chaplaincy, Anna Friends and Social Prescribing – St Austell
- debbiethrower0
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Cornwall Anna Chaplain Jane Wingrove explains how a chance conversation in the queue for a flu vaccination in the local GP surgery led to a meeting with Jack Watterson, Social Prescribing Lead for St Austell Healthcare.
'Jack was looking for a way of meeting the needs of the aging and isolated population in his care. After a meeting with representatives of Churches Together in St Austell, we got together as we both believed that Anna Friends were the best way to meet this need.
Anna Chaplains work to provide spiritual care for older people in their communities. Named after the widow, Anna, who appears with Simeon in Luke’s gospel; both are good role models of faithful older people. Anna Chaplains are there for people of strong, little or no faith at all. Anna Friends work alongside Anna Chaplains.
After identifying the skills and personal attributes that we were looking for Jack and I produced a role description, person specifications and a list of responsibilities. Five individuals were identified who we thought would be right for this ministry. God is good! Five perfect people, from four different places of worship said “yes”.
Jack and I had further conversations around sharing the responsibilities between the Anna Chaplains and St Austell Healthcare. Holy Trinity church agreed to hold the Anna Friends under their pastoral work. Jack arranged a contact from the social prescribing team who would link those requiring visits to the Anna Friends.
Once all the practicalities had been sorted training was arranged at the end of October, using the Anna Chaplaincy Training Manual. Following the Church of England Safer Recruitment Guidelines, safeguarding training was also undertaken as well as DBS checks.
January saw the first of the weekly visits being undertaken by the new Anna Friends and at the beginning of February the five Anna Friends were commissioned by the Bishop of Truro, Bishop David.
Since the commissioning Anna Friends have been making regular visits to individuals identified by the social prescribing team. Prayer and spiritual support have been offered where appropriate. We also meet regularly to review our experiences and ensure that best practice is being maintained.
Currently the group visit five ladies and three gentlemen (we do have a male Anna Friend!) As a result of this project, we have two people exploring the possibility of becoming Anna Chaplains and two more who would like to join the Anna Friends team.'
If you would like to find out more or have a conversation about Anna Chaplaincy/ Anna Friends please email jane.wingrove@staustellchurch.uk
St Austell Health Care Social Prescribing team are so pleased to be able to work with St Austell Parish and Churches Together to enable Anna Friends' befriending scheme. Where the voluntary sector were unable to meet this need, the faith sector has stepped in to help provide a lifeline to some of our older patients who can go weeks with out seeing anyone but the postman. Isolation is one of the biggest issues of our day and has a huge impact on health and wellbeing.
Jack Watterson
Last year as I was about to start a new role with my church, I arranged to meet with Jane who had a similar role in her church. At this meeting Jane told me about the Anna Friend Scheme that she was about to start up in partnership with St Austell Healthcare. This was a timely meeting and immediately I felt I should be involved and put my name forward.
I attended the Anna Friends training sessions which were very thorough and interesting. I met my first ‘friend’ in January and have gradually been building a trusting relationship with her. It has been a great privilege to come alongside this lady who has opened up about her life.
Being an Anna Friend is a very rewarding and valuable ministry which I am sure will transform the lives of lonely people.
An Anna Friend
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