Beachy Head Chaplaincy

Sharing a purpose-built Multi Agency Building (MAB) with both HM Coastguard and Sussex Police, the BHCT is based next to the Beachy Head pub. We patrol the 4.5-mile stretch of Beachy Head, by car and on foot, from Birling Gap in the west to the edge of Eastbourne in the east.

Our role is to locate people in crisis and do our best to get them to a place of safety, and then hand them over to other services, so they can get the help they need.

As well as engaging with people we meet on our patrols, a lot of our time is often spent working closely with Sussex Police, responding to emergency calls to locate people at risk.

As you would expect, there is a thorough training process before being let out on the loose. The first few months are a combination of classroom-based and mentored practical training, followed by a carefully supervised 3-month probationary period, before a final assessment.

The training is wide-ranging. This includes the practical equipment skills required (thankfully Coastwatch had fully prepared me for binocular searching and VHF use) but the thermal imaging camera and search light techniques for night searching were new. Other training covers the people interaction aspects (once we have found them) from spotting behaviour that could be a sign of potential distress, to conversation techniques to again determine whether people have sadly come to Beachy Head to harm themselves. There is also negotiation skills training, and other practical issues such as how to position yourselves when engaging with someone, especially in the often challenging conditions and weather.

The Beachy Head team

There are currently 24 chaplains in the team; 6 full/part-time paid staff and 18 volunteers. In pairs, we cover the hours of 9.00 am to midnight every day of the year, broken down into three 5-hour shifts each day. Most of the volunteer team do one or two shifts per week, and the employed staff spend time on logistics and administration, as well as the patrols.

The BHCT website notes: “Our search and rescue chaplains are Christians from local churches, and although we reach out with the love of God, we never impose our faith on the people we seek to help. We believe that by receiving skilled crisis intervention support at their time of crisis, people in suicidal distress can be awakened to the hope that there are other ways forward to address the problems they face.”

People end up in crisis for all sorts of reasons and if we can help them to make a different choice today, then they have a chance to be able to make different choices tomorrow.

How we’re funded

The charity is funded entirely by donations from supporters and the public, and since 2004 they have responded to over 13,500 incidents, intervening with over 600 people in 2022 alone.

After spending 3 months in a temporary portacabin this Spring while building work was going on, we moved back into a fantastic extended and refurbished building in July, funded by Sussex Police, which has been a huge blessing. We now have far more comfortable facilities to deal with people when we can get them back to the MAB. With the extra space, we no longer need to have people in our patrol cars when there is more than one incident ongoing.

As many of you will know, Beachy Head is a truly wonderful place with breathtaking scenery and ever-changing views with the light of the day. It is a very popular visitor spot for overseas tourists, school trips, uk day trippers and locals alike, all enjoying their time there.

The tragic lure of Beachy Head

However, as we all know from monitoring the radios whilst on our watches, there is sadly another aspect alongside this with people there who are at their lowest ebb.

Until starting with the BHCT, I had never made a 999 call to the police, but am now practically on first name terms with the call operators. It has been incredibly impressive to see first hand how professional and caring Sussex Police officers are in dealing with this aspect of their jobs.

Alongside the police, other services regularly involved at Beachy Head are the NHS Mental Health services, Coastguard rescue teams and helicopter, ambulance service, and Eastbourne RNLI.

Suicide is far-reaching, and we probably all know a family or friend who has been affected by this tragedy, or have been affected ourselves, and the impact can last a lifetime. It is not always an easy subject to talk about, but hopefully this brief look at the workings of a group of people trying to help those in crisis to find other alternatives when none may seem possible at that time, has been of benefit. Everyone struggles at various times and the more we can talk about the mental health burdens that we encounter as we go through life, and ask for help, the better the chances that times of crisis can be avoided.

There will be some lows as well as the wonderful highs in the role, but it is always a real privilege to be out walking Beachy Head, talking to people we meet, and whenever possible, being there to care at a time when someone might need it the most.

You can read more about the work of the BCHT at our website, and please do let me know if you have any questions.

In the meantime, please do keep the BHCT in your thoughts, as well as the staff and volunteers of the other agencies involved at Beachy Head.