Pathway to accommodate patients' spiritual needs.

Abstract

Many service users would like their spiritual needs to be taken into account during treatment and doing so has been shown to have positive benefits. However, this rarely happens in practice. Barriers to healthcare professionals providing spiritual care include embarrassment, lack of awareness and training, fear and lack of time. This article describes the development of a spirituality care pathway as part of a wider organisational initiative to offer spiritual support in mental health services. The process highlighted the importance of developing awareness and ownership of the need for spiritual care in all service areas and among service users. A range of spiritual interventions were identified and a process of monitoring and review introduced. The approach was appreciated by service users and staff, and was developed within existing professional and management processes.