Despite burgeoning evidence of the importance of spirituality for wellbeing and quality of life, it remains a difficult concept for many people, including those who are accessing aged care services. More often than not, it is equated with religion. While religion can be part of spirituality it isn’t exactly the same. Religion is generally recognised as a formal organisation of people with similar spiritual beliefs, whereas spirituality is a wider concept that includes the core aspects of a person’s life expressed in their values, beliefs, traditions and practices (Puchalski et al, 2009).

The National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care (Meaningful Ageing Australia, 2016) expect that aged care services will understand and respond to the spirituality of older people. The Australian Government developed aged care standards that provide services for the support of daily living that ‘promote each consumer’s emotional, spiritual and psychological wellbeing’ (Australian Government, 2019).

The Exploring Spirituality With Older People (ESWOP) project was developed to help older people articulate what matters for their core wellbeing, and to help aged care services know how to have these conversations. Importantly, Connect–Explore (Diagram 1), which arose out of ESWOP, has been validated for use as an Australian spiritual assessment process that does not reduce a person’s spirituality to a number, but rather, invites a genuine engagement with each individual.

This eBook illuminates some of the key stories about spirituality that were uncovered during the research project, involving 58 older people and 25 interviewers.

Laurence Lepherd, University of Southern Queensland and University of Queensland
Ilsa Hampton, (Formerly) Meaningful Ageing Australia

Non-members of Meaningful Ageing Australia can buy the eBook here.

Are you a member and have not yet received your complimentary copy? Please get in touch: admin@meaningfulage.org.au