Spiritual care is considered to be an essential part of the healthcare supply. However, it is not yet a sustainably integrated part of the care supply in the home situation. This project aims to explore possibilities and tools to stimulate the structural embedding of spiritual care in the home situation in three Dutch provinces.
Background
Spiritual care is person-centred care in which people are supported to unravel, expose and address existential life questions related to ultimate meaning and spiritual questions. With that, it is an important aspect of holistic care.
The last couple of years, there is a paradigm shift that emphases the adoption of holistic care. Spiritual care is a fundamental element of this. Nonetheless, spiritual care is not yet an integrated part of the current range of care supply in the home situation in several regions in the Netherlands. The Ministry of Health decided that this has to change. They provided a grant to explore the possibilities for structural embedding of spiritual care in the home situation.
Objectives
This project aims to sustainably integrate spiritual care in the current care system structures in three Dutch regions, whilst containing and nurturing the uniqueness of the profession. In order to achieve this goal, we explore the ways in which the embeddedness can be shaped, and provide the required tools to support the professionals to develop their practice as self-employed and within the community.
Athena’s role and approach
The Athena Institute executes action research to initiate and facilitate co-creation with all relevant actors, such as spiritual caregivers, health and social professionals, policy makers, volunteers and clients. The co-creation sessions initiate learning, knowledge development and change to achieve sustainable results. Throughout the process we stimulate the reflection and learning process of all involved actors to achieve a sustainable embeddedness of spiritual care in the home situation.