OUR ETHOS
The Africa Healthcare Chaplaincy Network (AHCN) is a health and human welfare agency that embarks on introduction, integration, support and provision of professional healthcare chaplaincy in healthcare and human welfare settings. We help people and families facing illness and suffering find spiritual comfort and meaning. We provide clinical pastoral education, continuing professional education and research on the effectiveness of chaplaincy and spiritual care. We aim to raise the professional chaplains, spiritual care providers on our clinical staff and volunteer grades to work at all our clinical and welfare sites.We are specialists in integrating spirituality within healthcare and human welfare and the growing specialty of palliative care in order to improve patient care and its experience.We aim to pursue this mission through research, education, clinical practice, and alliances with likeminded organizations. We aim to provide professional chaplaincy services in leading healthcare and welfare facilities, to help bring comfort and healing to countless people coping with illness, trauma, and grief– whatever their beliefs, values or cultures.
We provide pastoral care and counseling services through therapeutic conversations and development of caring relationships. The service process include; spiritual assessment, spiritual diagnosis, spiritual therapy and spiritual evaluation. The certified chaplain personnel and volunteers will make specific provisions for meeting the spiritual dimension of clients’ needs, continue to demonstrate commitment to providing for the education of persons in their areas of operation, and further enhance the progressive and high quality care offered.We embark on advancing the profession of pastoral care; integrating research, education and clinical practice; and providing continuing and professional education.We will partner with many leading academic centers, national and state public and private health institutions, both military and civil organizations to provide professional spirit-centered care and supportive counseling that promote integration and health.
We carry out the following aims and objectives;
To integrate spirituality within healthcare and human welfare programs through research, professional education and clinical practice and to provide professional chaplaincy services to improve patient, family and staff satisfaction in healthcare and public facilities.
To promote clinical and theological excellence in the area of pastoral care through personal growth, the building of professional capacities and rigorous theological reflection and the professional collegiality of chaplains and spiritual specialists through publications, communications, consultations, peer review and continuing education.
To provide for clinical pastoral education as a part of theological and continuing education for ministry of spiritual and chaplaincy care and operate educational centres in a variety of settings to prepare persons through competent supervision for the practice of spiritual and chaplaincy care, counseling and education.
To provide a network of support and encouragement for its staffs and to develop and nurture relationships with other professional disciplines and associations, faith groups and public agencies toward the promotion of professional chaplaincy and spiritual care.
To serve as an interfaith and multi-faith professional voice advocating spiritual values on behalf of the religious community in international, national, state and local health and human welfare programs and services.
To examine human faith and deepen scholarly understanding of the interactions among religion and health, spiritual needs and the role of chaplaincy in health institutions and spiritual development across the lifespan.
To respond to emergency call out for public safety and emergency situations, such as automobile accidents, natural disasters, civil unrests, plane crashes, etc and to provide critical incident stress management services for people and personnel in traumatic situations.
OUR SERVICES
The Africa Healthcare Chaplaincy Network Provides the following services.
1. CLINICAL SERVICES: Clinical Services are among our major services at Africa Healthcare Chaplaincy Centre. We raise efficient and effective chaplains and spiritual care providers on our clinical staff and volunteers team that serve and support the patients, families, healthcare professional staff and the communities around the healthcare institutions in all our clinical sites.
2. EDUCATION: Education is one of the pillars that the Africa Healthcare Chaplaincy Centre stands upon. We offer a wide selection of training programs and resources for professional foundation of and continuing education and clinical pastoral education. We develop effective training modules and pattern for all volunteers to effectively serve the population and communities that need their services.
3. RESEARCH: The effective research program is the bedrock of every effective training and education which in turn inform the services provided by the professionals. We build upon this belief to make all our chaplains to be research informed. We lay solid and effective research foundation for all our chaplains during the training and practice. We enhance research in the integration of spiritual care in healthcare.
4. CERTIFICATION: The certification program is designed to elevate professional standards, enhance individual performance and designate professional chaplains and spiritual care providers who demonstrate the knowledge essential to the practice of chaplaincy and spiritual care. Chaplains and Spiritual Care Providers are certified as board certified professionals or associate certified professionals according to established national standards, including a code of ethics. The application process is conducted year-round. A certification mentoring program is available to all applicants.
5. ACCREDITATION: Through our accreditation process, we seek to assure quality in chaplaincy supervised education (CSE); assure students of consistency in educational programs; recognize achievement in creative programming; promote fairness in conduct and evaluation of educational programs; integrate unique clinical/educational resources; and facilitate planning and evaluation. We authorize programs of clinical pastoral education, based on demonstrated ability to meet our standards. We accredits: (1) the centers that conduct CSE programs and (2) the CSE programs the centers may offer.
6. VETERAN SUPPORT: We organize chaplain services that serve military, police, security and law enforcement personnel in their barracks, homes, offices, commands stations and bases and routinely pay visits to the agencies and institutions to conduct devotional services, one on one counseling services and “Being With” services for the personnel and officers. We train our chaplains in the way they can effectively serve the agencies and enhance the service delivery systems. We also organize Ride-Along Services for the officers on patrols and at checkpoints that need the chaplain services such as counseling, ministry of presence, conflict resolution, advisement for offenders, etc.
7. EMERGENCY CALL OUT: We prepare our chaplains to respond to emergency call out for public safety and emergency situations, such as automobile accidents, natural disasters, civil unrests, plane crashes, etc and provide critical incident stress management services for the victims, people around and personnel in traumatic situations and incident scenes. We are sure that our chaplains are well prepared for readiness to respond to emergency call out and well trained to maintain response time and follow the procedure from the call out time to provide services include counseling, ministry of presence, debriefing, care, evacuation, etc.
