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Healthcare chaplain brings comfort in final chapter
An understanding of both physical and spiritual wellbeing is key to Helen Garrard’s role as both an ordained minister and a registered nurse, working as chaplain at Priscilla Bacon Lodge in Norwich
Helen’s calling into ministry emerged out of her nursing. She was a lay reader in the church for a long time before she discerned a calling to ordained ministry. Helen draws on her understanding of both physical and spiritual wellbeing in her role as chaplain
Chaplaincy is part of the NHS provision and is for people of all faiths and none. Helen says the most important thing is to care for people sensitively and appropriately
“The majority of people I support in chaplaincy don't really have an identified faith or belief. Many people acknowledge that there is something beyond them and, whilst not aligning themselves with any particular faith or belief, are keen to explore the impact of this as physical health changes”
Helen’s personal faith gives her the ability to sit alongside people in all sorts of distress and need. “Sometimes people look to you with questions such as; what happens beyond this life? What’s it all about; Why is this happening to me? You then draw upon your rootedness in faith and tradition as a basis to support their exploration”
Priscilla Bacon Lodge is a hospice in Norwich offering specialist palliative care services. The modern building is owned and maintained by the Priscilla Bacon Lodge charity, which funds some additional services such as music therapy, complimentary therapy, arts therapy and a cafe from within the hospice
Each room has a door connecting to the garden, and patients find great joy in watching the flowers come and go and to see the birds swooping over the field. Helen said: “There's a lot of joy just in the moment recognising that these are precious times”
Joy is something you’d think would be in short supply in a palliative care hospice. Helen said, “The joy comes from being able to support people in living their life as well as they can and completing it as well as they can. It's in listening to what matters to them and connecting with the person beyond the illness. There are parts of life, and of us, that are not diminished by illness. There are parts that actually come to life when we are drawing close to the end of our lives. Our spiritual awakening is much more vivid. People can be very free to pursue things like reconciliation of relationships"
There is a lot of strength in working with a close-knit team at the hospice, and part of Helen’s role is to support the staff, whose regular experience of grief, and sadly sometimes upon the death of young patients, can be emotionally challenging
Helen's work is to lead chaplaincy services for the whole of the healthcare trust. There are 12 community hospitals across Norfolk, plus patients living in the community. Helen leads and supervises the team of honorary chaplains and chaplaincy volunteers and describes them as ‘incredible people’. She said, “I'm always interested in talking to people who have a vocational nudge towards hospital chaplaincy”
Originally from the North West of England, Helen and her husband, who is a parish priest in Rockland St Mary, have lived in Norfolk for 36 years. They enjoy traveling together, and Helen likes to cook and sew. She brings her creativity into her job, “The creativity is really important. Working creatively with people's stories and with your own faith to adapt liturgies and Bible stories can help to respond to a need”
Helen says that it’s important for someone working in chaplaincy to be part of a church community and to keep their own faith nourished. Through her dedication, Helen demonstrates the powerful role of chaplaincy in supporting the wellbeing of both patients, their families and staff in palliative care
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Helen Baldry, 12/07/2025
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