Page 18 - pcsanz annual report 2020

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Prison Chaplaincy Through COVID-19
The global outbreak of COVID-19 this year resulted in a high level of restricted movement across all sectors of New Zealand society. Prisons were no exception, and as a result, chaplaincy and other rehabilitative and reintegrative services had very limited access to sites from late March. The easing of national restrictions allowed paid chaplaincy staff to return to prison sites in late May, while volunteers gradually returned over the June period.
The chaplaincy service used the hiatus to prepare site resources, offer an on- call service to sites, and to provide written material to paihere. Chaplains did occasionally return to deal with emergency and critical incidents during the lockdown period.
During the lockdown, we made more use of electronic forms of communication to manage internal services and maintain some degree of contact with paihere. The very positive response from staff and paihere when the chaplains returned to site highlighted the importance of having face-to-face contact to get the best out of relationships with paihere and staff.