End of Life Care | Spiritual care | Spiritual resources and quality of life

Spiritual resources and quality of life
Session overview
Description
In this session you will explore the meaning of the term spiritual resources and consider the relevance of them to a dying person's quality of life.

This sesson was reviewed by Rebecca Whiting and Sarah Hanrott and last updated in June 2023.

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

• identify the internal and external spiritual resources which the dying person and their family may draw upon
• apply your learning about spiritual assessment and interventions to enable people with unmet spiritual needs to access those resources
• explain the meaning of quality of life for the person at the end of life
• explain the relationship between quality of life and spirituality when facing death
• recognise the specific cultural issues raised and appropriate responses for the worker

Before commencing this session you may want to consider completing:

• 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)
• Understanding and assessing spiritual need and spiritual distress (215-0802)
• Spiritual care and models of spiritual intervention (215-0803)

In our plural and diverse society, we see a wide range of people's belief systems.

Consequently, we cannot prescribe a formula that will state clearly what quality of life means for each individual.

Instead, we offer a framework for thinking about how a person's spiritual resources can be identified and how these relate to their quality of life.

This will help us discover how we may enhance their quality of life until the point of death.

In this session you will explore the meaning of the term spiritual resources and consider the relevance of them to a dying person’s quality of life.