Meaningful Ageing Australia is the Australian national peak body for spiritual care and ageing. We are a membership based not-for-profit, supporting organisations and groups to respond to the pastoral and spiritual needs of older people, their significant others, and their carers. We advocate for spiritual care to be included in all care settings. Our mission is to enable access to high quality pastoral and spiritual care for all older people in Australia. Membership is open to organisations and groups who provide support, care and/or accommodation to older people.

Impact

The impact of our work is seen in comments from our members:

“The National Guidelines have helped our organisation see that there are better ways of structuring our organisation to give greater meaning and purpose” in the lives of clients.

“Since beginning with Dementia Services, our staff are noticing a reduction in disruptive behaviours at meal times and less anxiety between residents.”

“Our staff are having talks about wanting to see people employed because of character, not technical skill. This has been a big change.”

Meaning, Purpose and Connectedness is Everybody’s Business

Spirituality is integral to, but not confined by, religion and faith. It is about what gives us a purpose to our lives. It is about our sources of meaning and hope, which in turn is intimately related to our connectedness to ourselves, to others and to the world. We therefore work with a wide range of organisations: faith-based and not faith-based, private sector and charitable. Spirituality is all about meaning, purpose and connectedness.

There is now a large body of evidence showing that pastoral and spiritual care is an essential part of holistic care for everyone, particularly older people including, importantly, those with dementia.

If you are someone who shares that vision, or is simply curious about how something like ‘spirituality’ can be an integral part of caring, then we would love to stay in touch.  Please take some time to learn about us on this site and join our mailing list.

What is Spirituality?

Spirituality is the way we seek and express meaning and purpose; the way we experience our connection to the moment, self, others, our world and the significant or sacred. (adapted from California Lutheran Homes Centre for Spirituality and Ageing)

For more definitions please read our definitions document found here