When you are going through a difficult or uncertain time, it can help to have someone to talk to. Our Pastoral and Spiritual Care service at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust offers compassionate listening and support for people using SABP services, their families and carers, and SABP staff.
You do not need to be religious to speak with us. We welcome people of all faiths, beliefs and worldviews, including people with no religious belief. Spiritual care is about what matters to you, which may include meaning, hope, identity, relationships, personal values or faith.
Our team includes staff and volunteers from different faith and belief traditions. We work alongside clinical colleagues to support wellbeing and recovery. Our support complements clinical care and does not replace mental health assessment, treatment or risk management.
You can contact us directly at pastoralcare@sabp.nhs.uk, or ask a member of your care team to help you request support.
We offer a non-judgemental space to talk about your experiences and what matters to you. You may want to explore questions about hope, purpose, identity or belief, or you may simply want someone to listen.
We can support you with:
- Finding sources of meaning, hope and connection during illness, change or recovery.
- Talking about loss, grief, guilt, fear or questions about your identity and values.
- Exploring spiritual or belief-related concerns that are causing distress, alongside your clinical team where appropriate.
- Reflection, quiet time, prayer or other spiritual practices, if these are helpful to you and appropriate to your care.
- Considering suitable faith, belief, voluntary or community support if you would like it.
For people using our services, we can offer a spiritual needs assessment. This is a conversation about what matters to you, sources of support and any spiritual concerns. Together, we can agree what support would be helpful. Ongoing support is usually offered over a limited number of meetings and reviewed with you.
Support is your choice. You can decline or stop pastoral and spiritual care. We respect your beliefs and will not pressure you to change them or take part in religious activities.
You can ask for support directly or speak with a member of your ward or community care team. Families and carers can also contact us to request support, with the person's consent where required. You do not need a formal referral to speak with us informally when a team member is available.
If you are on a ward, ask staff how to contact the team or when we are visiting next. If you are receiving care in the community, ask your care coordinator or another member of your care team to help, or contact us directly at pastoralcare@sabp.nhs.uk.
We will discuss your wishes and agree what support is appropriate. Where needed, we work with your clinical team to make sure support fits your care and is safe. Our team provides pastoral and spiritual support; we do not provide psychiatric assessments, diagnosis, psychological therapy or clinical treatment.
Please tell us if you need an interpreter, information in another format, or an adjustment to help you communicate with us.
Privacy and confidentiality
We respect your privacy and handle personal information in line with Trust policy. For people using our services, we record relevant pastoral and spiritual care contacts in the care record and work with clinical colleagues where appropriate.
Confidentiality has limits. If there is a concern about your safety, someone else's safety or safeguarding, we may need to share relevant information with the appropriate team. We will explain how information is used and, where possible, discuss any necessary sharing with you.
Faith and belief support
If you would like support that reflects your faith, beliefs or non-religious worldview, please tell us. With your consent, we can explore suitable support and coordinate involvement from an appropriate faith or belief representative where this is safe and relevant to your care.
Requests for community faith leader involvement are arranged through the Pastoral and Spiritual Care team, working with your ward or community team. Prayer, worship and other religious activities are optional. We respect both your freedom to practise a religion and your freedom from religion.
Our Pastoral and Spiritual Care team offers listening and reflective support to SABP staff in any role. You do not need to be religious to access support.
You can speak to a team member informally when they are available or contact us to arrange a conversation about personal or work-related concerns. We can help you reflect on difficult experiences, loss, questions of meaning or other concerns affecting your wellbeing, and signpost you to other support where helpful.
We will explain the limits of confidentiality, including our responsibilities where there are safety or safeguarding concerns. To ask for support, email pastoralcare
Support for teams
We can contribute to staff wellbeing and reflective conversations following difficult experiences. Teams can contact us to discuss what pastoral support may be appropriate.
Volunteers contribute to the work of our Pastoral and Spiritual Care team by offering time, compassionate listening and support within their agreed role. Our service welcomes people of different faiths, beliefs and non-religious worldviews.
Volunteering involves an approved recruitment process, appropriate checks, induction and training for the role. Volunteers work within agreed boundaries and receive ongoing learning and supervision. Their contribution supports the team's pastoral and spiritual care; it does not replace clinical care.
To find out about current opportunities and the approved requirements for the role, email pastoralcare
Community connections can be an important source of support during recovery or after leaving hospital. If you would like, we can discuss suitable faith, belief, voluntary or community resources that are relevant to your wishes and needs.
Any involvement arranged through our team is considered with your consent and appropriate checks of safety and suitability. Where ongoing or formal support is arranged, it follows the Trust's partnership and governance requirements. Community support complements your NHS care.
Participation is optional. Please contact pastoralcare
Quiet and spiritual care spaces can provide a place for reflection, prayer or a moment of calm. You do not need to have a religious belief to use them.
Please ask staff about suitable spaces at your site and any access arrangements.
We provide and contribute to training that helps SABP staff recognise spiritual needs and respond safely and respectfully. Topics include pastoral and spiritual care, professional boundaries, safeguarding, consent and when to refer to our team.
We also support relevant training for approved community faith leaders and voluntary sector partners, including mental health awareness, safeguarding and professional boundaries.
Our team contributes to research, service evaluation and audit to improve pastoral and spiritual care, following Trust governance and ethical requirements. To ask about training or appropriate collaboration, email pastoralcare
The Pastoral Care team includes people of different faith traditions and beliefs. We provide spiritual care and support to people who use our services, their family and carers as well as SABP staff. We support people in their spiritual journey – both on our wards and in the community.
Email: Pastoralcare
Telephone us on: 01737 288 860
Or write to us:
Our Pastoral and Spiritual Care team brings together chaplains, spiritual care practitioners and volunteers from a range of faith and belief backgrounds. We support people using SABP services, their families and carers, and staff, welcoming people of all faiths and none.
Working alongside clinical colleagues, we offer compassionate, non-judgemental support that respects each person’s beliefs, values and wishes, helping them explore what brings meaning, hope and connection to their lives.
Rev Josiah Anyinsah
Head of Pastoral and Spiritual Service
Josiah leads the Department of Pastoral & Spiritual Care and chairs the Trust's Spirituality and Faith Forum staff network.
Before joining Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in 2011, he served for 10 years as Borough Chaplain for Mental Health Services in Lewisham at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.
With more than 25 years' experience in pastoral and spiritual care in the NHS with a dedicated career to supporting the spiritual, emotional, and pastoral needs of people living with mental health conditions and learning disabilities.
Josiah is an ordained Baptist minister, a registered member of the Council of Professional Chaplains and Pastoral Carers UK, and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
His academic and professional interests include spirituality and mental health, psychosis and spirituality, spiritual assessment in clinical practice, workplace spirituality, and promoting faith, belief, and culture as integral elements of inclusive, person-centered care. Josiah undertook his doctoral research exploring the training needs of Christian leaders looking after people with mental health issues.
Josiah is committed to embedding pastoral and spiritual care within multidisciplinary mental health services through clinical practice, service development, education, and research, supporting compassionate, recovery-focused care.
During his leisure time, Josiah enjoying spending time with his family and church community and has a broad musical taste and watching a wide range of films and classic dramas.
Kawther Hashmi
Multi-faith Co-ordinator
Kawther Hashmi is the Multi-Faith Co-ordinator within the Pastoral and Spiritual Care Team at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She provides compassionate, trauma-informed, person-centred pastoral and spiritual support to people experiencing mental ill-health, including those receiving inpatient care and offering referrals to appropriate community-based services and support networks following discharge.
Working with people of all faiths and none, Kawther creates a safe and respectful space in which individuals can explore questions of faith, meaning, identity, hope, loss and recovery. She works alongside clinical colleagues to help ensure that spiritual, religious and cultural needs are recognised as an important part of whole-person care.
Alongside her chaplaincy role, Kawther is Head of Project Management, Faith and Communications at Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum (SMEF). She helps to develop, manage and evaluate programmes addressing health inequalities, community wellbeing and the needs of ethnically minoritised communities. Her work involves close partnership with the NHS, public health, local authorities, the police, voluntary organisations and grassroots community groups.
Since 2011, Kawther has developed extensive experience in suicide prevention, domestic abuse, mental health, community engagement and interfaith work. Through SMEF, she works with faith leaders, community organisations and public services to raise awareness, challenge stigma, strengthen support and referral pathways, promote culturally responsive approaches and build understanding and cooperation among people of all faiths and none.
Kawther holds a BA in Accounting and Finance and studied Islam at the Institute of Classical Islamic Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan. She has taught Islam for more than 20 years and continues to teach at the historic Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking. As a founding member and trustee of the Surrey Muslim Association, she is committed to building bridges between communities and challenging misconceptions about Islam and the role of Muslim women.
Outside work, Kawther enjoys badminton, spending time in nature, art and Arabic calligraphy.
FR. Alban Aguezeala
Chaplain
Fr. Alban Aguezeala was born and raised in Nigeria. He studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood and was ordained in 2003. After his ordination, Fr. Alban worked in his home diocese of Orlu, Nigeria, until 2012, when he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, to serve as Assistant Priest at Sacred Heart Church. Fr. Alban’s ministry in Copenhagen was brief, as he then moved to Athens, Greece, to serve as Chaplain of the English-speaking Community of St Therese’s Church, Athens. He also served as Roman Catholic Chaplain of Minidi Immigrant Detention Camp, Athens.
In 2017, Fr. Alban moved to England where he served as Parochial Administrator and Assistant Priest. In 2021, he was appointed Parish Priest of English Martyrs Horley, as well as Roman Catholic Chaplain at East Surrey Hospital, Redhill.
Fr. Alban joined the Pastoral and Spiritual Care Team at SABP in March 2024 and is looking after The Meadows. Fr. Alban studied Healthcare Chaplaincy at London South Bank University through Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. He is an accredited chaplain and a member of the United Kingdom Board of Healthcare Chaplains. He loves reading and pastoral care of the sick.
Josh Darcy
Chaplain
Josh has worked in spiritual and pastoral care for the last nine years, practising in various areas including the police and fire services, Woodhill Prison, Keech Hospice in Luton, Bedfordshire University, and various NHS trusts including Bedfordshire Hospitals, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital and Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust. He joined SABP in September 2025.
Josh qualified with an MA in Existential and Humanist Pastoral and Spiritual Care at the New School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, accredited through Middlesex University.
Josh is an autistic person and brings that lived experience to his work, having specialised in spiritual care for neurodivergent people. He is also an accredited Humanist celebrant.
Before working in spiritual and pastoral care, Josh worked extensively in theatre and comedy, touring the world and appearing in the West End, Off Broadway and at Shakespeare’s Globe. He is also a voice actor and a published playwright.
When he is not with SABP, Josh still works in theatre and teaches at the Royal Academy of Music, as well as doing voiceovers and recording audiobooks. He is also a professional tabletop roleplaying gamesmaster.