Interfaith week is a national opportunity for us all to learn about how people see the world in terms of their spirituality. You may hear quite a bit of media coverage of the week, with people from different faith and belief groups talking about the way in which they look at life through their spiritual view point. It is also a chance for us to consider our own thoughts about spirituality and how we attempt to make sense of our lives, cope with our fears and find peace.
The Spiritual Care team at Weston Hospicecare comprises of one full time Chaplain/Spiritual Lead and three chaplaincy volunteers from different backgrounds.
Chaplaincy teams have traditionally been made up of local clergy who have given time to support local hospice care. Over the past 20 years this has changed dramatically with training and accreditation in place for healthcare chaplains. Spiritual care teams are made up of people from diverse backgrounds, including the major faith traditions as well as non-religious pastoral support workers. The aim of our team is to support people with spiritual care in the broadest possible terms.
What is spiritual care?
Human beings are complex! We operate on all sorts of levels and one of them is spiritual. We respond to the world around us in different ways and try to make sense of events and situations that are part of our experience.
The elephants in the picture are a really good way of portraying our complexity. On any day, how we rate our responses to different things will change. The large elephant can be a physical problem or an emotional one. Equally the smallest elephant can be a physical pain compared to the larger elephant representing spiritual distress.
Spiritual care teams are trained and skilled professionals in healthcare who are able to support patients and families in spiritual pain and distress as the face a life limiting illness. Whilst our personal faith and beliefs inform how we work, our intention is not to persuade someone to adopt our point of view. Our primary aim is to support people where they are and to share the journey.