Bali, Jacob (2024) The Impact of COVID-19 on the Practice of Pastoral Care Practitioners in a Religious Setting in the UK. Doctoral thesis, University of West London.

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Abstract

Background: Pastoral care's primary objective is to provide emotional and spiritual support to vulnerable and critically ill individuals. While pastoral care is often linked to religious practices, practitioners have played a critical role in aiding those in need throughout society during the pandemic and in normal times. The global pandemic caused widespread challenges and hardships, leading governments to implement critical measures to contain its transmission. These measures encompassed travel limitations, compulsory mask-wearing, lockdowns, prohibitions on in-person gatherings, and curfews. The pandemic also impacted social interactions, significantly straining families and communities, necessitating increased pastoral support. Despite the need for heightened pastoral care, practitioners encountered significant hurdles in carrying out their duties due to the pandemic. Therefore, the study's objective was to explore the impact of COVID-19 on pastoral care and make recommendations to improve pastoral care during normal and challenging times.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were used to explore the impact of COVID-19 on 25 pastoral care practitioners. The participants were selected based on their experience in delivering pastoral care within a Christian context in the United Kingdom before and during the pandemic. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. A pilot study was first conducted to examine the feasibility of the research and to identify potential problems with the research design. The main study expanded the scope of the pilot study by increasing the target population and advancing the investigation to meet the research objectives.
Findings: Eight themes were identified in this study, which included the following: the importance of pastoral care, the roles and responsibilities of the pastoral community, the impact of the pandemic on pastoral activities, the impact of the pandemic on communities, how the pastoral communities adapted to the pandemic, the internal and external barriers to adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for the pastoral community, and the future of pastoral care. The findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges to the traditional methods of pastoral care. To adapt, practitioners turned to virtual platforms to maintain social distancing guidelines. Despite the benefits of this approach, limited resources hindered its widespread adoption, and practitioners reported experiencing burnout due to the increased workload and the challenges of adapting to these novel strategies.
Conclusion: COVID-19 affected pastoral care considerably. Adopting novel strategies and technology could improve care access during pandemics. Moreover, the need to enhance the personal well-being of pastoral practitioners is a critical lesson observed in the research.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Identifier:	10.36828/thesis/12801
Subjects:	Medicine and health > Person centered care
Depositing User:	Marc Forster
Date Deposited:	23 Oct 2024 09:15
Last Modified:	23 Oct 2024 09:16
URI:	https://repository.uwl.ac.uk/id/eprint/12801

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