Padres are already an invaluable resource for mental health. I'm not remotely religious, but found having a padre to talk to at times was a real help and comfort.
A debatable point. I was tasked to a be Visiting Officer many moons ago
interestingly given the author of this thread, to one of the Gulf War widows who was much in the news at the time
It was my first such experience as a JO and being a stoppy ****er I asked the Stn Cdr whose office I was in...
Why the **** me? Don't we have padres for this sort of thing?
The staish (who by repute was both religious and very straightlaced, but imho a first rate bloke, with tremendous integrity) replied...(words to the effect of)
"half of all RAF padres are just alcoholic wasters" ...in any event it appears such duties are no longer in their terms of reference."
Being a fervent atheist I tended to give padres a wide berth, but once I had occasion to ask a padre a question which was a. bothering me b. important to me. His glib, facetious answer damn near earned him a smack in the mouth.
Some year later his name popped on the beeb (I checked to make sure it was the same dude...it was) and in the tabloids, seems he became a bit part player in a somewhat sordid political episode. I read a quote or two of his...same mealy mouth music as he gave me, many years previously.
I agree with the poster above. Get these dudes trained/involved and give them the job...or replace them with competent professionals. And as for sending totally untrained individuals like me to the house of a widow, mainly to get them to fall into line with the MODs wishes...are you fkn kidding me. I would hope that has already stopped!!!!
Lest this be seen as simply an ax-grind, I will point out that there are many excellent padres in the RAF and I'm sure those ones wonder why they don't have these tasks within their remit already.