Spiritual Support: between Therapy and Lack of Discourse
Type de matériel :
31
In our highly medicalized societies, palliative care offers a more humane end-of-life care plan based on the patients’ needs. One of the components of this model, the spiritual support, seems particularly innovative given the secular character of the medical field. This article will first focus on the relationship with religion in our societies, and on the context in which the necessity to care for patients’ spirituality appears. Then, the approach will be described and aspects of an ethnographic survey carried out at the Fondation Rive-Neuve in Villeneuve will be reported. The study showed that patients and medical staff seldom speak about spiritual support or needs, although this dimension is central for this institution; a number of activities have even been planned to allow for spiritual support. How can this be interpreted? The possibility of introducing a discussion about spirituality in this institution will be questioned, as well as the difference between spiritual and psychological support—the latter being common in health professionals’ discourse. The non-verbal expression of patients’ spirituality will also be considered. Also, medical staff’s need for spirituality, as they face the patient’s death, seems equally relevant.
Réseaux sociaux