Meaningful Ageing Australia recognises meaning as one of the three inter-related key components of spirituality which enrich our lives as we get older: meaning, purpose and connectedness. The Australian Aged Care Quality Standards expect organisations to attend to each person’s spirituality, including the need for meaning.

The Map of Meaning is a simple framework that captures the dimensions that makes work and life meaningful. It offers a powerful approach to constructively impact the experience of getting older.

Based on research and tested in the field over the past twenty years, the Map of Meaning meets the needs of the mind for a rational sense-making tool, while intuitively feeling right. It helps us give words to the strong feelings that arise from our experience of meaningfulness, and loss of meaning; and it is a social framework, one that increases our sense of connection with others.

This handbook has been co-written with Lani Morris from the Map of Meaning International Trust. The activities have been tested in Australia and New Zealand. Thank you to our members Christadelphian Aged Care, Resthaven, St Basil’s Aged Care Services and Uniting AgeWell Victoria/Tasmania for your input to ensure the handbook was fit for purpose.

Contents:

Standards for Spiritual Care
Introduction
Part 1: Understanding the Map of Meaning
Part 2: Going Deeper with the Map of Meaning
Part 3: Using the Map in the Context of Aged Care
Part 4: Practical Exercises and Planning Activities
Conclusion
Appendix I: The Map of Meaning
Appendix II: Example of a Collage

Downloadable templates will be available here soon.

45 pages

The Map of Meaning and Ageing: a handbook for service providers was launched by international expert Dr Jane Kuepfer on 23 October 2019 in Melbourne

Handbook two, for self-reflection by older people, will be available in 2020.