Mental health training for Crosby curate

Apr 2 2009 by Janine Yaqoob, Crosby Herald

A CROSBY curate is among a group of newly-appointed curates on Merseyside who have received expert advice on how to tackle issues from parishioners with mental health problems.

Simon Elliott, of St Luke’s Church, Liverpool Road, went along to the training event at Mersey Care NHS Trust’s inter-faith and spiritual care department, along with 15 other curates.

They were joined by a Jesuit volunteer working in Liverpool City Centre Methodist Church at the seminar on the trust’s Maghull site.

Training sessions were delivered by Mersey Care’s Church of England chaplain, Sister Catherine Moon, and Rev David Glasson, head of inter-faith and spiritual care.

Rev Glasson said: “We approached the theme from a spiritual care point of view and presented the group with situations which might be encountered in their faith community with people with some form of mental ill health.

“Issues and possible responses were worked through, leaving participants to work out for themselves how they would deal with a given situation. A session on keeping professional boundaries was included.”