Spiritual care in sector must be recognised says paper

We hope the discussion paper promotes discussion about spirituality and meaning in life, says Paul Sadler.

Charity and peak body Meaningful Ageing Australia has published a discussion paper exploring the funding challenges in spiritual care within the aged care sector.

It suggests Australia advocate for greater recognition of spiritual care in the country’s aged care system and for a culturally safe and appropriate model of care for aged care, in line with The National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care.

Thought leaders, practitioners, and policymakers have been recruited to discuss the topic in the paper and insights from a series of roundtables and consultations are included.

Paul Sadler. (Image supplied)

Meaningful Ageing Australia board director Paul Sadler and chief executive officer Rachael Wass co-authored the paper, along with various contributors to delve into the challenges within the sector as a catalyst for change.

According to the authors of the document, aged care lacks specific funding for spiritual care and older Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse communities and those who are First Nations face a “lack of culturally appropriate models of care”.

Speaking with Community Care Review, Mr Sadler said that most importantly, the department should recognise spiritual care practitioners through parity of funding of spiritual care in line with other sectors by listing spiritual care as an eligible emotional support service both for residential care and home care; and including spiritual care practitioners in the residential care minutes targets.

“The Department supports Meaningful Ageing Australia to refresh of the National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care [in conjunction with the Australian Association of Gerontology, we have separately approached the department for grant funding to support the refresh],” he said.

Enhancing Spiritual Care and Emotional Wellbeing in Aged Care. (Image: Meaningful Ageing Australia)

“This will assist providers to gain greater competency, assess and operationalise an enhanced level of spiritual care; and consumers to engage with culturally appropriate models of care and identify their personal sources of meaning, purpose and emotional wellbeing.”

Among the discussion document’s other key suggestions include that spiritual care should be listed as an eligible emotional support service:

  • in the guidelines for the Support at Home program
  • the End of Life Pathway operating within Support at Home
  • in the care minutes targets applying from 1 January 2025.

Spiritual care practitioners should also be recognised as highly trained professionals and valued members of multidisciplinary teams in their own right and additional information should be gathered on the scale of the spiritual care workforce.

Rachel Wass. (Image supplied)

“MAA encourages providers to advocate for and offer spiritual care and culturally appropriate models of care, in line with the National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care,” Ms Wass told CCR.

“As a membership-driven organisation, we also encourage providers to consider joining MAA so that we can expand our offerings to the sector. There is an elevated expectation of competency in spiritual care required by the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. The new standards include spiritual care in their description of cultural safety, diversity, palliative care, goal setting and wellbeing.”

The discussion paper was launched at The National Aged Care Alliance meeting in November of last year and has since been updated with further contributions.

Mr Sadler told CCR that the Alliance welcomed the discussion paper and there was a good discussion about the importance of spirituality for older people.

“We hope the discussion paper promotes discussion about spirituality and meaning in life as of as much significance to older people as other elements of human experience such as physical health, emotional wellbeing and social contact,” he said.

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Tags: aged care, cald, meaningful ageing australia, Paul Sadler, policy, rachael wass, support-at-home, The National Aged Care Alliance, The National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged Care,

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