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Back to Module 14: Religion, Spirituality, and End of Life Care Introduction to Religion, Spirituality

Spirituality in Healing and Medicine: Historical Overview
Concept of Spirituality and Spiritual Care

• What is Spirituality?
• What Spirituality is NOT
• What is Spiritual Care and Who Provides it?

Objectives of this Module

Spirituality in Healing and Medicine: Historical Overview

• Relationship among body, mind, and spirit is complex

• Distinctions between body, mind, and spirit are a product of modern Western thought


• Historically, mental and physical illness were understood as religious


• Religious leaders were (and in some cases still are) at one and the same time medicine men and healers


• The distinction between the body, mind, and spirit dimensions of the human person -- and the professional disciplines to which they correspond -- are products of the European Enlightenment


• Not until age of the Reformation, Descartes, and the Scientific Revolution did medicine and religion became separate disciplines, at least in the West

• Relationships between spirituality and medicine vary across cultures

• Of course, numerous cultures throughout the world were virtually unaffected by this conceptual revolution


• In some languages, there are no words to differentiate body from spirit, physical illness from malady of the soul


• For additional discussion of culture, see Module 13: Cultural Issues

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Concept of Spirituality and Spiritual Care

What is Spirituality?

• Spirituality gives transcendent meaning to life

• Spirituality can be defined most generally as that which gives transcendent meaning to life


• It refers to the universal human need for love, hope, relatedness, value, and dignity

• Spirituality is concerned with the sacred

• Spirituality often, though not always, includes a direct experience of the sacred, holy, or divine

• Spirituality has many manifestations

• Philosophy of life
• Core values
• Set of life-defining beliefs and practices

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What Spirituality is NOT

• Spirituality is not the same thing as religion

• Religion is an established system of symbols, beliefs, rituals, and texts shared by a community of faith


• Spirituality is to religion as the whole is to the part


• Religion is a particular historical, cultural form of spirituality


• Many persons are “spiritual” without adhering to a form system of religious beliefs and practices


• Some examples of spirituality that are non-religious include:


• Finding strength, peace, or a sense of vitality in nature
• Creativity; aesthetic spiritualities
• Humanistic philosophies
• Life meaning in family and community
• Personal growth as the reason for living


• Note: Within a specific culture, these terms may have meanings that differ from our general usage in palliative care/hospice

Example

• Spirituality is not reducible to psychology

• The language of psychology — indeed of the social sciences at large — fails to capture the experience of transcendence which defines spirituality

• It cannot account for the sense of wonder, awe, and “otherness” which is at the heart of most spiritualities

Examples

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What is Spiritual Care and Who Provides It?

• Spiritual care has a broad focus

• Spiritual care includes attention to:


• Specific religious needs
• Examples: following dietary laws and sustaining practices which provide comfort


• General spiritual issues that arise at the end of life
• Examples: loss of hope, the search for meaning, or the affirmation of personhood

• Spiritual care is the responsibility of ALL team members

• In the context of palliative and hospice care, spiritual care is the responsibility of all members of the interdisciplinary team


• Just as all members of the team assess for physical pain and share a general knowledge about pain management, so all members of the team don a “lens” that allows them to pay attention to the spiritual needs of patients and families

• Chaplains play a special role in spiritual care

• Because of their expertise, training, and role, chaplains or professional spiritual caregivers assume primary oversight for spiritual care


• They may work very closely with the patient and family’s own religious leader or faith community

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Objectives of this Module

• Generate definitions of spiritual care

• Recognize the importance of spiritual care at the end of life

• Identify the providers of spiritual care in palliative and end of life settings

• Discuss how to ask about spirituality and religious beliefs and practices

• Recognize spiritual suffering

• Describe how to address spiritual suffering

• Identify ways that health care professionals can provide spiritual care and contribute to spiritual growth at the end of life

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