End of Life Care | Spiritual care | Understanding and assessing spiritual need and spiritual distress

Understanding and assessing spiritual need and spiritual distress
Session overview
Description
This session considers the meaning of spiritual need and distress. It also addresses how to assess the spiritual needs of those receiving end-of-life care, and when and how this can be achieved. This session was reviewed by Andrew Martin and Richard Kitchen, and last updated in March 2022.

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• identify what is meant by spiritual need and spiritual distress
• include spiritual need within your overall assessment of those in your care
• describe various approaches to the assessment of spiritual need
• demonstrate an understanding of the appropriate timing and approach to assessment of spiritual need in end of life care
• respond to specific cultural issues that may arise in the process of assessment

Before commencing this session you may find it helpful to complete:

• Assessment of spiritual well-being (215-0207)
• "Why Me?'': Discussing spiritual distress (215-0329)
• Spirituality and the philosophy of end-of-life care (215-0801)

Every person experiences the human condition differently, so everyone has a different understanding of their various needs. For the purposes of this module, spiritual need can be represented by a continuum, from spiritual well-being at one extreme to spiritual distress at the other.

This wide spectrum of spiritual need can be seen between different people as well as in one person at different times.

This session considers the meaning of spiritual need and distress. In end of life care, we take account of spiritual need and spiritual distress in a holistic way. This session looks at the practice and timing of spiritual need assessment.