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Assessing Spiritual Well-Being in Residential Aged Care: An Exploratory Review

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A Correction to this article was published on 30 May 2019

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Abstract

With the emerging incorporation of spiritual care into the allied health stream, there is a need for a clear and validated process of spiritual review that can be understood across multidisciplinary teams. The aim and purpose of this paper was to critically review the literature regarding spiritual screening, history-taking and assessment, and explore the merits of developing a brief instrument focussed on assessing and improving the spiritual well-being of consumers within residential aged care. Following an exploratory review of the literature, the results indicate that effective processes are noted regarding the triage and identification of the needs and spiritual assessment of consumers; however, many of these tools are overly religious in content, unwieldy in size, or not specifically aimed at identifying the immediate crisis confronting the consumer. It is recommended that an assessment instrument be developed which is communicable across all allied health practitioners (including spiritual carers), which may contribute towards a taxonomy of common consumer conditions, and which will enable the development and delivery of more targeted care plans.

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Fig. 1

Source: Puchalski et al.’s (2009) spiritual assessment model modified with the [authors’] indication of a proposed brief instrument between ‘spiritual history’ and ‘spiritual assessment’

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Change history

  • 30 May 2019

    The original publication of this article (Drummond and Carey 2018) contained a missing reference in the “Results” section, second paragraph (p. 382). The corrected text has been given below.

Notes

  1. WHO Spiritual Intervention Codings: In addition to the four key interventions noted above, an additional intervention is also included -‘Allied Health Intervention’ for any generic spiritual care intervention not otherwise listed.

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Acknowledgements

Appreciation is acknowledged to Dr. Bruce Rumbold and Dr. Christa Carey-Sargeant (Palliative Care Unit, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) and the McKellar Centre, Barwon Health (Geelong, Victoria, Australia) for their assistance in completing this research.

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  1. McKellar Centre, Barwon Health, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    David A. Drummond

  2. Palliative Care Unit, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Lindsay B. Carey

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Correspondence to Lindsay B. Carey.

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Drummond, D.A., Carey, L.B. Assessing Spiritual Well-Being in Residential Aged Care: An Exploratory Review. J Relig Health 58, 372–390 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-018-0717-9

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