The contributions of university chaplains, as spiritual care professionals, to suicide prevention: results from a European expert panel

ABSTRACT

University chaplains are responsible for providing spiritual care to all members of the university community. Within the multifaceted duties of a university chaplain, one crucial (yet often overlooked) aspect is suicide prevention. To identify the contributions of university chaplains to suicide prevention, seven university chaplains located in four European countries participated in three focus group sessions. Two overarching themes were generated from the focus group sessions: key elements of university chaplaincy; and the contributions of university chaplains to suicide prevention. The study revealed that university chaplains contribute to all three phases of suicide prevention: prevention, intervention, and postvention.

KEYWORDS:

• University chaplaincy
• spiritual care
• Christian
• suicide prevention
• European

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the participating university chaplains: Jos W. G. Geelen, Pachomius Okogie, Michiel Peeters, Kerstin Söderblom, Martijn Steegen, Gert Van Langendonck, and Ann Verscuren.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval for research involving human participants and/or animals

Ethics approval was granted by the Social and Societal Ethics Committee of the KU Leuven on 12 August 2022 (dossier number: G-2022–5822-R2(MAR)).

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Consent to publish

All participants provided informed consent for the publication of research results.

Notes

1. There are other books written from a Christian perspective that focus primarily on postvention. Jeonghyun Park’s book provides parish ministers with several pastoral approaches for survivors of traumatic deaths, specifically suicide (Park, 2017). Chris Alar and Jason Lewis’ book is written for Christians who are dealing with the loss of someone by suicide with the intention of preventing them from becoming a victim of a suicide (Alar & Lewis, 2019).

2. It is important to acknowledge that there may be other ways to conceptualize the relationship between spirituality and religion.

3. This conception of spirituality is similar to the first.

4. Spirituality in this sense refers to people who are religiously unaffiliated, “or identify with non-theism, agnosticism[,] or humanism, but who explicitly self-identify as ‘spiritual’ or are committed to a variant of religion which we may call ‘implicit religion’” (Streib & Hood, 2013, pp. 141–142). This conception of spirituality is similar to the first and third.

5. It is important to note that each dimension is interconnected. This model can be aptly depicted in two ways: (a) using four overlapping circles, or (b) with three overlapping circles (representing the biological, psychological, and social dimensions) encased within a larger circle representing the spiritual dimension. The latter depiction emphasizes the utmost importance of meaning in life.

6. The word, “student,” is used instead of person because university chaplains primarily care for students. However, particularly in the postvention phase, university chaplains provide care to all those affected by a suicide loss, which can include staff members and relatives. In such instances, “student” can be synonymous with persons.

7. Focus groups are a type of qualitative research method in which a group of people are gathered to discuss a specific issue (Hennink, 2014; Nyumba et al., 2018). Focus group sessions allow for participatory research, that is, researching with, rather than on, the subjects of the research (Reason & Torbert, 2001; Vaughn & Jacquez, 2020). In this case, the subjects were university chaplains.

8. This practice serves multiple purposes in qualitative research, including ensuring accuracy, and showing respect for the participants. Firstly, it ensures accuracy by enabling participants to verify transcribed information and provide clarifications if necessary, which is crucial given the potential for transcription errors and the limitations of time constraints on participants’ expression. Secondly, it grants participants control over their own data, emphasizing respect for autonomy and confidentiality.

9. Chaplain 6 specifically referred to the work of Professor Andries Baart (Baart, 2004, 2005).

10. As a term, safer space is preferred to safe space. As Chaplain 4 remarked, “safe spaces, while probably always envisioned, are difficult to offer. There can always be something in the way. If it’s only a word that is said in a non-respectful way … it might already hurt somebody.”

11. It must be emphasized that university chaplains exercise discretion to discern situations where it may be appropriate to bring in religion.

12. As Chaplain 2 stated, “an offer is made to every human being. Everyone. There is nobody who is not welcome to the chaplaincy [service].”

Additional information

Funding

The author is a Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) fundamental research fellow(1144722N). The author declares that no additional funds, grants, or financial support werereceived during the preparation of this manuscript.