St Luke’s Charity, Cork has funded for some time, as part of its outreach programme, an annual unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) on site in its education centre at Northridge House, Mahon, Cork.

The CPE Centre  has recently  been accredited by the All Ireland CPE Accreditation Board (AICAB). The Director at Northridge House is the Rev Bruce Pierce. The AICAB visiting group consisted of representatives of the following bodies – National Association of Healthcare Chaplains, ACPE (Ireland) Ltd, Chaplaincy Accreditation Board and the Northern Ireland Healthcare Chaplains Association. Fr Brian Gough is Chairperson of AICAB.

The Reverend Dr Neil Elford

The visiting group involved an overseas CPE Supervisor to enhance objectivity and best international practice. On the February accreditation site visit to Northridge House, the Rev. Dr. Neil Elford was part of the team. Dr Elford is a member of the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care and part of the CASC Centre Accreditation Committee. Currently he is Director for Spiritual Health Mission and Ethics at Providence Care and Hotel Dieu Hospital, Kingston, Ontario.

Commenting on the news of the accreditation, the Chairperson of the Board of Saint Lukes’ Charity, Cork,  Dr Paul Colton said:

While the historic core of the work of our charity is Saint Luke’s Home, Cork where we care for the elderly and dementia sufferers, our outreach programme has become increasingly important.  This includes our day care centre, and support for the chaplaincy work of Canon Dr Daniel Nuzum at Cork University Hospital.  A key element also in this outreach programme has been the development of Northridge House, our education centre.  This news of the accreditation of the CPE centre at Northridge House is a significant milestone,  Full credit and great praise is due, in particular, to the work of Bruce Pierce, our Director of Education, for his creativity, energy and diligence in bringing this about to an internationally recognised standard.