This community of practice, in partnership with the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care, centered around the understanding and application of spiritual health and its diverse meanings within the context of palliative and bereavement care. The goal of this community was to create a space for health care professionals, systems leaders, spiritual care practitioners, and psychospiritual therapists to come together and deepen their understanding of spirituality in palliative and bereavement care.
This series helps to build on foundational knowledge participants have acquired and allows them to share and communicate their experiences and support each other’s understanding and caring for the spiritual needs of palliative and bereavement care clients, friends and families.
Series 1
Sessions were held from June 2023 to December 2023.
Introduction
Spiritual Care Assessment Tools
- FICA, Spiritual History Tool: F: Faith or Beliefs; I: Importance and Influence; C: Community; A: Address https://gwish.smhs.gwu.edu/programs/transforming-practice-health-settings/clinical-fica-tool
- SACR-D: S – self-awareness, A – assessing the patient, C – compassionate presence, R – referring for additional spiritual support, and D – dialogue, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1743291X12Y.0000000015
- Inter-professional Spiritual Assessment Tool: Community; Meaning & Hope; Personal Spirituality / Religious practice; Struggles. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1542305020949443?journalCode=pcca
- Narrative Approach to Spiritual Assessment: Hope; Belonging, Creativity, Meaning and Purpose; Trust.
Supporting Existential Reflection and Meaning-Making Part 1
SPIRITUAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT: Healing through Self-Awareness from the Sacred Art of Living Center
Supporting Existential Reflection and Meaning-Making Part 2
Spirituality of Grief and Bereavement
Reinventing Ritual, Narrative Presence, and the Spiritual Nature of the Grief Journey
Series 2
Sessions were held from August 2024 to April 2025.