Opinions vary as to whether provision of spiritual care should become widely available to older people with mental health needs who are admitted to hospital. Old age psychiatrists recognize that awareness of spiritual dimensions may be important for their patients. They seem less clear about the role of spiritual advisors and how NHS multidisciplinary clinical teams and spiritual and pastoral care services can be best integrated. Much work needs to be done on developing effective training and operational policies in this area.
An individual who is approaching the end of a long life will often gain comfort from exploring his or her experiences in emotional and spiritual terms. This is widely recognized, and help is usually at hand for those wishing to address dilemmas relating to religion and values. However, this option will not be available to those who, because of dementia, have lost the ability to communicate on these matters. A caregiver or clinician may fail to grasp the experiences that hold religious and spiritual significance for the patient, and there has been little discussion of how mental health practitioners should address the issue. In this paper we present arguments that lead to the proposal for 'time capsules' whereby patients with early dementia can set down their thoughts and so exercise a degree of control over subsequent events.
An individual who is approaching the end of a long life will often gain comfort from exploring his or her experiences in emotional and spiritual terms. This is widely recognized, and help is usually at hand for those wishing to address dilemmas relating to religion and values. However, this option will not be available to those who, because of dementia, have lost the ability to communicate on these matters. A caregiver or clinician may fail to grasp the experiences that hold religious and spiritual significance for the patient, and there has been little discussion of how mental health practitioners should address the issue. In this paper we present arguments that lead to the proposal for 'time capsules' whereby patients with early dementia can set down their thoughts and so exercise a degree of control over subsequent events.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.