22/10/2019
I firmly believe that people are spiritual (if not religious) beings. It grounds us in our lives, informs us about our values and ethics and most important, it gives us a sense of belonging.
Whatever form of dementia people may have, it causes a sense of disorientation in time and space besides the gradual loss of cognitive abilities and (verbal) memories. As the disease progresses a shift occurs where people revert to a child-like state inasmuch that how they feel becomes more important that what they think/rationalize.
Many (elderly) people in Ireland have grown up in a time and country where religion played a major role and where the Church controlled the educational, healthcare and social systems. Although over the past two decades many cases about abuse and other scandals have surfaced, this does not take away anything from genuine attachments to religious feelings, values and connection of people to the deeper layer of spirituality that has been the foundation of their lives for so long. As care providers, our view on the attachments to spiritual and/or religious needs should not be coloured by or projected from our own religious views.
The process of secularization is particularly active in Ireland. Partly because of the enormity of the scandals that are part of our past and the hurt they have caused, partly because we become increasingly multi-cultural and multi-religious and it may be easiest to leave the spiritual needs of people in any care setting to the professionals outside of this setting, i.e. the Church.
Is spiritual care the same as religious care?
Spiritual care, in my opinion, is extremely important in any setting but we do have to distinguish spiritual care from religious care.
Religious care is often connected to a particular faith tradition using their language, beliefs, rules, traditions and world concept. It is a distinct part of the left side brain and leans heavily on language. Religious care can work very well for some and for a long time but studies have shown that in particular Alzheimer’s disease, often starts and is more active in the left side of the brain, affecting cognitive functions. Religion then can stop ‘making sense’ to people, creating another loss of connection.
Spiritual care can use aspects of religious care like prayers or hymns but is much wider. Based on our sense of ‘self’, ‘group’ and ‘world’ it is mostly located in the side of the brain which has no language at all but leans on feelings instead. E.g. the words of the prayers/hymns may lose their meaning, but the rhythm and music still evokes feelings of familiarity and connection. A core element of spiritual care is connectedness. Families dealing with the effects of dementia face a great deal of loss. As the person at the center of their care is more and more affected, it becomes increasingly difficult to connect with them. Spiritual care does not try to ‘smooth away’ the pain off loss nor does it take away any of the heartbreak but can create a safe space and a helping hand for people to stay connected to the person, the outside world and themselves.
