FREQUENTLY
ASKED
QUESTIONS
Who is 1800Chaplain for?
1800Chaplain is for you, your family, your friends, and your community. Chaplains are here to stand with you and offer caring, confidential, non-judgemental support, comfort, reassurance and, where needed, referral to other services.
Are calls to 1800Chaplain confidential?
All conversations are strictly confidential and are not recorded.
What is the actual number for 1800Chaplain?
1800 24 27 52
Who are chaplains?
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?
Chaplains do not proselytise religious or denominational beliefs. They 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.
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 be celebrated and appreciated and could never be replicated.
Are the Chaplains trained and supported?
Our Chaplaincy Australia accredited chaplains have completed at least a Certificate IV or Diploma in Chaplaincy with 100 hours of supervised placement and 1800Chaplain specific training. This assures that our call-team are ready, with highly developed skills, to help everyone who calls.
1800Chaplain training includes 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.
On each shift, there is a team leader to provide immediate debrief and support if needed, and further follow up will be made available for any significant event.
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 offer 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 offer connection with another human who is able to help the caller find support, comfort, reassurance and, where needed, referral to other services.
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.
Do you have more questions? We’d love to hear from you!
Click here to fill out the form on our contact page and we will be in touch.
Interested in joining the 1800Chaplain Team?
Click here to fill out the form and we will be in touch.