Richard Adams
Chaplain
Richard has been a chaplain since 2001 and has been chaplain for Spenser ward at the ACU since 2007. While we build a brand new hospital on the Abraham Cowley Unit site, Richard is the chaplain for New Spenser Ward.
Richard trained originally in Chemistry at Southampton University and went on to work for Beechams at Brockham Park for 18 years making new antibiotics. He then trained at Spurgeon’s college as a Baptist minister and although church ministry did not call came into Mental Health Chaplaincy after some further training. Chaplaincy has been a part time occupation.
Alongside this Richard worked for L’Arche Lambeth Looking after the properties and infrastructure that enables a community to function well and then more recently began a master’s degree training to be an Osteopath. In his spare time from 2001 to 2018 Richard was a board member and then treasurer for Clapham Park Project recipient of New Deal for the Community funding from central government to revitalise and renovate the poorest communities in the country. This one is where he lived near to what used to be the Lambeth borough sink estates and is now a thriving multicultural community no longer living with fear of gangs and differences: That ‘nasty smell in the stairwells’ is now known as ‘Maria’s cooking again, that tastes really nice… I’ve tried it at the open day!’
These bring together the ideas that a system needs to be free from intimidation to work well, up to date technologically so as not to be left behind and open to each other to learn and grow and develop.
Throughout all this Richard has been an active person playing 7a side football weekly until moving away and still running regularly to keep fit and now also enjoying regular walks around Exmoor near his new home.
Richard has been involved in equipping the wider community with our Introduction to mental health issues in pastoral and spiritual care courses for the last 5 years and for a similar time in the Spirituality and Faith Forum, SABP’s network for wide understanding of spirituality within the organisation.
Rev Josiah Anyinsah
Specialist Chaplain
Josiah Anyinsah is the Deputy Team Leader and chair of the Spirituality and faith Forum, staff Network at Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Josiah is a chaplain for people living with Learning Disability and Mental Health problems and has been a chaplain for over 20 years and a church pastor for over 35 years. He was recently ordained as Baptist minister after training for the Baptist ministry at Spurgeon’s College. Before joining the Trust, Josiah worked at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust as Borough Chaplain for Mental Health Services in Lewisham for 10 years.
Josiah is a UK Board Accredited Chaplain and a registered member of the British Association For Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).
Josiah has an interest in the interface between spirituality and mental health, psychosis and spirituality and workplace spirituality. The importance of recognising faith and belief as part of an inclusive workplace.
Josiah enjoys listening to African music, and a variety of Western and Country movies and songs.
The Revd Dr Nigel Copsey
Consultant Lead Chaplain
Nigel has worked as Team Leader for Spiritual Care and developed chaplaincy during the many consolidations of mental health care in Surrey.
He is an ordained Anglican minister who has dedicated the majority of his time in ministry to developing Chaplaincy Departments in the NHS. His passion is the integration of spirituality with mental health within the NHS. Nigel worked as five years as a researcher with the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and published two reports of spirituality and mental health.
Nigel has also been responsible for developing a range of training programmes in mental health and spiritual care in partnership with many universities. He remains committed to partnership with Faith communities and equipping members and faith leaders in understanding the interface between mental ill health and spirituality.
Nigel is also an accredited psychotherapist and teaches part time at the Metanoia Institute.
Sarah Cousins
Lay chaplain and administrator
“Hi, I’m Sarah. People reveal their unique spirituality and all of them have something beautiful or valuable to reveal in their ongoing story. This uniqueness can often be harnessed as part of their pathway to better health or wholeness as a person. It is important to me that as I meet someone they know they are respected and safe and that we are in this together. The other element that I bring to my work when meeting people is our common humanity in the face of God. We share this world and breathe the same air and pray about quite similar matters once you get down to it. A person may not go to church but they often tell me that they pray or talk to God every day. A person who does not include God in their story will say they value helping others or how precious are their family, friends, pets or relationship with nature.
Values such as kindness, self -acceptance, forgiving one another, giving our best for others, loyalty, honesty, tolerance, patience, bringing joy, making peace and firming up on justice matter to every one of us and are part of individual wholeness and contributing to society.
As any of us encounter that lasting spark, in another person, that some call divine, our values and attitudes may not be in accord, but we all have the privilege of standing on the same earth and treating one another as family, humankind.”
Sarah has been a lay chaplain and administrator for over 20 years. Sarah has an honours degree in theology and is a Reader in the Church of England. She enjoys baking, craft, poetry and forest bathing.
Anne Gear
Pastoral worker
Anne has worked in the department for over a decade. She was the first person with lived experience who was also someone who used services at the time she was appointed.
Anne’s role is that of a pastoral worker. She is responsible for and leads the Sunday afternoon drop in at Merstham Baptist Church. Anne has a rich history of training as a teacher, working with Scripture Union (writing materials), a church worker and counsellor training. She brings to our department a depth of understanding of living with mental ill health whilst also maintaining a faith.
Kawther Hashmi
Multi-faith Co-ordinator
I joined the Pastoral and Spiritual care Team at SABP in September 2018 as the Multi faith Coordinator. I firmly believe faith is an instrumental source of strength and solace at times of hardships. Faith and spirituality have a huge role in recovery for people with mental health illnesses.
I also work as a Faith Links Adviser and over the last 10 years, I have gained very valuable insight to how faith communities operate and their immense contribution to society as a whole. I work closely with interfaith forums; some of which I have helped to establish as part of my work. Through this, I have developed friendships with people of different faiths and beliefs and learnt from them about their beliefs and practises.
Although I have a BA degree in Accounting and Finance, I decided not to take the finance route as a career. I have also studied Islam at the Institute of Classical Islamic Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. I have taught Islam for over 13 years and continue to teach at the Shah Jahan Mosque. I am a founding member and trustee of the Surrey Muslim Association (platform for Muslims in Surrey) and I am passionate about breaking down barriers, building bridges between communities and dispelling myths particularly about Islam and the role of women. I have been involved with organising events on various topics, some of which are: hate crime, mental health, climate change, community cohesion and supporting refugees in Surrey.
I am married to the Head Imam at Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking and we have three sons. I enjoy sports (badminton in particular), art and Arabic calligraphy.
Rabbi Danny Rich
Chaplain
Danny is an experienced rabbi, having served two decades as the congregational minister to Kingston Liberal Synagogue followed by 15 years (until 31 March 2020) as the Senior Rabbi to Liberal Judaism.
He has been part of chaplaincy teams throughout his career, currently at Surrey and Borders and Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts, and acts as on-call chaplain to Jews at Broadmoor Special Hospital and a number of HM Prisons.
Rabbi Rich sits as a magistrate in the SW London Commission and serves as a trustee of UK Welcomes Refugees and Love Me Love My Mind (Epsom Mental Health Week).
Danny is a father of four children and a grandfather to five, and enjoys walking in the English countryside watching birds and other wildlife and playing table tennis.
Alisdair Semple
Chaplain
Alisdair has been working at SABP since February 2019.
His first Degree, Chemistry, was from Royal Holloway College in London and was followed two years later by a PGCE at Nottingham University, these allowed him to work as a science teacher in secondary schools. He left teaching after four years to work in Quality Assurance for Glaxo SmithKline and seven years after that jumped into Pastoral Ministry as a church leader in Surrey.
After sixteen years Alisdair left full time church ministry and since then has worked as a lecturer in forensic science and managed a national audit for an influential charity. As a volunteer he has continued to serve as a Community Pastor for the church, spent five years as a part-time Police chaplain for Surrey Police, and is the Chair of Trustees for Voluntary Action Reigate and Banstead. He recently completed an MA in Biblical Studies and Theology from Kings College in London graduating in 2020.
He is now a fully registered member of the U.K. Board of Healthcare Chaplains and a member of the College of Health Care Chaplains.
Alisdair is married with four grown up children and two grandchildren, who live further away than he’d like. He enjoys walking, reading and playing games of strategy.