As part of National Palliative Care Week 2017, Meaningful Ageing Australia and Palliative Care Australia released a joint position statement about the importance of spiritual care in palliative and end of life care.
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Palliative Care Australia and Meaningful Ageing Australia affirm that: Spiritual care is an integral part of palliative care. A palliative approach includes spiritual assessment, and the involvement of appropriately trained staff. There are gaps in understanding about spirituality and spiritual care across the community, including amongst aged care staff and organisational leaders. Further education and specific funding is needed, for spiritual care practitioners to function as part of the team in the palliative approach. Religious and spiritual beliefs can affect decision-making about treatment, medicine and self-care as well as expectations of, and relationships, with health and aged care service providers. Individualised spirituality-based interventions can lead to lower depression scores and reduced anxiety. Cross-disciplinary palliative care is required to address psychosocial and spiritual needs at end-of-life in long-term care settings. Palliative Care Australia and Meaningful Ageing Australia call for: All aged care organisations to recognise the importance of spirituality and spiritual care for people, particularly those receiving end-of-life and palliative care, and respond appropriately to these needs. Aged care funding models to include specialised spiritual care support. Aged care workforce development to recognise spiritual need, particularly for those receiving end-of-life and palliative care, and improve capability to provide basic spiritual care. Consistent spiritual screening and assessment of all people in aged care, particularly at the point of commencing end-of-life and palliative care. Australian aged care standards to reflect the importance of meaning, purpose and connectedness for people receiving aged care, as described in the National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care. Read the full statement here |
Position Statement References:
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| Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Guidelines for a Palliative Approach for Aged Care in the Community Setting. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2011. |
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| Christina Puchalski et al., “Improving the Quality of Spiritual Care as a Dimension of Palliative Care: The Report of the Consensus Conference” Journal of Palliative Medicine 12, no. 10, (2009). |
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| Kaldor, Peter, Philip Hughes, Keith Castle, and John Bellamy, Spirituality and Wellbeing in Australia Occasional Paper No. 6 (Sydney: NCLS Research, 2004). |
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| Koenig, Harold, ”Religion, spirituality and medicine in Australia: Research and Clinical Practice”, Medical Journal of Australia, 186, no 10 (2007): S45-S50. |
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| MacKinlay, Elizabeth et all Music and Pastoral Care: Minimising the impact of depression and dementia for Elders (Barton: CAPS, 2014). |
| MacKinlay, Elizabeth, Palliative Care, Ageing and Spirituality: A Guide for Older People, Carers and Families. (London: Jessica Kingsley Publishing, 2012). |
| Meaningful Ageing Australia, National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care (Parkville: Meaningful Ageing Australia, 2016). |
| Meaningful Ageing, “Definitions”, accessed 21 April 2017 https://meaningfulageing.org.au/definitions. |
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| Mundle, Robert, “’Strong men don’t cry, but I’m not strong anymore’: A case study of bodily engagement with stories of loss and grief in palliative care” Illness, Crisis & Loss, 22, no. 4 (2014): 285-292. |
| Narayanasamy, Aru, and Jan Owens, “A critical incident study of nurses’ responses to the spiritual needs of their patients” Journal of Advanced Nursing 33, no.4 (February 2001): 446 – 455. |
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| Palliative Care Australia, “Glossary of Terms” in Palliative and End of Life Care, (Canberra: PCA, 2008). |
| Pilger, Caliope, Jaqueline Queiroz de Macedo, Renata Zanelatto, Leticia Gramazio Soares, and Luciana Kusumota, “Perception of nursing team of an intensive care unit about spirituality and religiousness” [Portuguese] Ciencia, Cuidado e Saude, 13, no. 3 (2014): 479-486. |
| Pringle, Erin, National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care Stakeholders Consultation Report (Parkville: Meaningful Ageing Australia, 2016). |
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| World Health Organization, retrieved April 19, 2017, http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/ |