About us
The Oxford Centre for Spirituality and Wellbeing (OxCSWell) is based within Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. It also has strong links with Oxford Brookes University and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Informed research
Our research underpins the development of training for staff so that they are supported to provide spiritual care as a fundamental dimension of person-centred holistic care.
In 2024 we began working on an investigation into the impact of spirituality and religion on the experience of bereavement by suicide. This project is planned to conclude in late 2026.
In 2019 we surveyed health care staff in the Thames Valley Region regarding their spiritual care training needs. The responses informed the inauguration of the first UK-wide university-accredited Post Graduate Certificate in Psychospiritual Care which began in May 2021.
Personal development
OxCSWell and the Spiritual and Pastoral Care Team within OHFT work collaboratively to implement an annual programme of training and personal development events.
In its first three years OxCSWell:
- organised 14 workshops for health and social care staff
- ran a conference for 100 participants
- hosted three annual lectures by nationally known clinical academics working in the field of spiritual care
- presented a series of seminars for healthcare staff
- hosted a number of retreats for staff at OHFT, which were re-formed as Oxford Health’s Recovery and Renewal days run by the Trust’s Spiritual & Pastoral Care Team and are still held regularly.
Listen, Share, Hold, Respond
The LiSHoRE (Listen, Share, Hold, Respond) project, which completed in 2022, sought to understand and explore Black, Asian and ethnically-diverse NHS staff’s spiritual and religious experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project was funded by NHS England/Improvement and led by OHFT in partnership with Oxford Brookes University (OBU). A project manager with the support of a post-doctoral researcher and administrator managed the project.
LiSHoRE involved running a series of supportive Consultation Groups across 10 different NHS Trusts in Oxford, Manchester, Leicester, Worcester and Coventry. The themes from these groups supported a series of webinars which were produced between Nov 2021 and March 2022. More details of these is available on the webinars page.