Spiritual nurturance and support for nursing home residents with dementia

Abstract

This mixed method study examined nursing home resident, family and staff views regarding spiritual nurturance and support for persons with dementia and analyzed institutional resources/approaches for meeting residents’ spiritual needs. For residents able to communicate in words (n = 47/83 or 57%), this topic evoked a range of emotional content, brought back memories, and yielded information about what mattered to them spiritually/religiously. Some observations and reported behaviors of residents unable to be interviewed directly (n = 36/83 or 43%) suggested emotional awareness of spiritual activities. Family member/staff perspectives revealed beliefs, concerns, and needs for support/training in the provision of spiritual care. Quantitative findings were consistent and identified differences between surveyed nursing homes (n = 48) with and without religious affiliations. Discussion of personhood, spiritual/ religious coping, and meeting spiritual care needs led to conclusions about the role of professional chaplaincy in educating and modeling for staff and others appropriate behaviors for providing spiritual support as well as the importance of accommodating diversity and maximizing resources.

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