Spiritual Care Matters Introductory Resource for all NHSScotland Staff

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Spiritual Care MattersIntroductory Resource for
all NHSScotland Staff

• Chris Levison
• Programme Director
• NHS Education for Scotland

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• An ancient bough resting in the freshness of
  the dawns light.
• Reflections and shapes in the water and we have
  to look twice to realise what it is we are
  looking at
• Connections between the old and the new
• Making a link, joining one side to the other
• All things are connected brought together in a
  unity
• Mind/Body
• Past and present
• One humanity with many branches
• The wonder of the natural world and the search
  for meaning and peace

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Where has this work come from?

• HDL (2002) 76 Training for staff
• 2. CEL (2008) 49, recommendation2
• 3. NES Corporate Plan (2007) states the need and
  intention to create a capability framework in
  spiritual care for all healthcare staff

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Steering group 2008

• Including reps from
• Nursing
• Medicine,
• Allied Health Professions
• Chaplains
• SGHD
• Education Project Managers
• Lecturers in Health Faculties
• Equality Managers
• Faith and Belief groups

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Was a capability Framework in Spiritual care
possible at this stage?

• If a closed framework, would that exclude
  examples of spiritual care which were spontaneous
  and difficult to classify?
• What about that already being done by staff
  just called quality care?
• Wish to affirm spiritual care as already
  happening, not another element to make people
  feel inadequate.
• Wanted to acknowledge the difficulty of
  terminology and the relationship between
  spiritual and religious care
• Wanted to highlight related initiatives already
  happening
• Wanted to share insight of a practical and
  understandable quality of healthcare
• Wanted to cover the subjects for inclusion in
  teaching or understanding the main elements of
  spiritual care.

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The Spectrum of Spirituality

• Is one way of describing the breadth and variety
  of the beliefs and values to which people adhere
• From
• A pure rationality which understands life as
  nothing more than chemical reaction,
• To
• A militant fundamentalism which values nothing
  other than narrow religious certainty.
• Most of us, however are at neither of these
  extremes and would place ourselves somewhere on
  that spectrum.

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Chapters are

• Introduction
• Spiritual Care
• Religious Care
• Communication and Relationships
• Spiritual History Taking The Use of Stories
• Looking after ones own Spiritual Wellbeing
• Reflective Practice
• Bereavement and Loss
• Spirituality, Equality and Diversity
• Organisational Spirituality
• Use of Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Services

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Spiritual Care

• Reminds us that we are of all creatures the most
  aware of our finitude, yet we share many traits
  and needs like love and compassion , hope and
  fear, which come to the fore when faced with ill
  health.
• In the NHS we need to be inclusive, person
  centred and aware of the deeper questions and the
  common search for meaning and purpose which
  commonly arise when people are faced with ill
  health.
• We suggest the need for all to show this respect
  and awareness but for others to be possibly
  champions in their work place and for a few to
  specialise in pastoral care.

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Religious Care

• Affirms the right to respect and as far as is
  reasonable to enable people to continue to
  practice their faith or religion while undergoing
  healthcare.
• Scotland is increasingly multi cultural with many
  faiths and beliefs systems in evidence.
• Health is often a core part of the beliefs people
  share and their faith gives them a means of
  understanding, and coping, and moving towards
  well being.

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Communication and Relationships

• Communication and relationships are at the heart
  of good care. The majority of complaints arise
  from a failure in this area.
• Good relationships and skilled listening are
  powerful tools for the building of health not
  only in patients but in staff and carers as well.

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Spiritual History taking The use of Stories

• Our stories tell who we are. The stories we tell
  not only explain how we get to be in our
  situation but very often are the best ways of
  coping , and the telling is part of that
  universal search for understanding and purpose
  which can enable us to seek and find the peace
  we all need.

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Looking after ones own spiritual well being

• Is aimed particularly at staff.
• We cannot deal with suffering people and not be
  affected.
• If we dont attend to our own and each others
  needs as staff we will inevitable become less
  open with others and less able to share or
  understand their feelings and needs.
• We need time for ourselves, we need time to think
  about our experiences, we need ways to support
  ourselves, through nature, or relationships or
  more specifically spiritual exercises like
  meditation or prayer.

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Reflective Practice

• Reflective practice provides us with a way of
  looking at our own practice in a way which can be
  both challenging and supportive.
• It can be done as individuals or more
  systematically in a group.
• Various types such as Significant Event Analysis,
  Clinical Pastoral Education and pastoral
  Supervision, all have their place.
• Reflecting on our own practice is one of the most
  effective ways of becoming self aware and opening
  the possibility of learning from our mistakes and
  our successes.

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Bereavement and Loss

• Is one of the most underestimated
  (misunderestimated?) areas of spiritual care.
• Losses can be work related, illness related,
  relationship related as well as grief and death.
• Bereavement affects a significant proportion of
  the population each year.
• It is a natural process and is better not
  denied.
• It can also become extenuated and complicated
  causing long term difficulties.
• Interventions can be helpful or otherwise a bit
  of wisdom about bereavement is of great value.

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Spirituality, Equality and Diversity

• Brings together an important part of present
  social agenda and the need for spiritual
  awareness.
• Discrimination on the grounds of any equality
  strand is an infringement of spiritual care, a
  proper awareness acceptance or even celebration
  of diversity brings additional benefits to our
  spiritual need.
• Age, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion and
  belief, and sexual orientation, are parts of our
  humanity and thus part of the human spirit.

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Organisational Spirituality

• Is what it says on the tin.
• It is not about making a workforce docile and
  subservient, it is about valuing the human
  resources which are the most valuable part of the
  NHS.
• It is also about seeing the health service as a
  social organisation which is one of the very
  best expressions of our common humanity and our
  care for those whose need is great. Free at the
  point of care. It also suggests very strongly
  that only a staff which is cared for and
  appreciated in their daily work will really be
  able to look after to the best of their ability
  those under their care.

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Use of Chaplaincy Spiritual care Services

• The spiritual care service is part of every
  health boards responsibility.
• For those times when need is complicated either
  spiritual, relational or religious, then staff
  need to know what the chaplaincy service has to
  offer, their availability and their skills in
  working with people in a person centred way.
• The spiritual care service is a resource for all
  staff to use and learn from and make use of in
  the provision of holistic and sensitive spiritual
  care.

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In Conclusion (Almost)

• This resource has been checked for KSF relevance
  and can be used to show development of awareness
  and knowledge in all these areas.
• It is part of the equality impact assessment and
  should help fair and equal dealing with our
  diverse population.
• This is not a call to become experts in
  spirituality, but rather a way of helping us to
  relate and respond to that human spirit which
  exists in all people. As Teillhard De Chardin
  the French thinker has said
• We are not human being trying to become
  spiritual, we are spiritual being seeking to be
  human.

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And Finally !

• This resource will be of use to anyone who is
  interested in the concept and practice of
  spiritual care.
• This resource is not an exhaustive description of
  everything to do with spiritual care.
• Fortunately spiritual care is also something
  which we can and do enjoy. It gives to us as we
  seek to give to others.
• That is the real meaning of a mutual health
  service.

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Thank You