Spiritual Care

Spiritual care is an important program that patients and their families can access for encouragement, healing, coping and support. You don't have to practice religion to benefit from our spiritual care program.

Our Spiritual Care volunteer team supports all types of spiritual expression: religious practice, personal relationships, artistic creation, a connection to nature, and more. You will be supported in a way that honours your values and beliefs. This service is available to patients, caregivers, and staff of all faiths and cultural backgrounds.  

Spiritual Care services  

• Prayers, blessings, and spiritual guidance. 
• Discover the meaning of illness, challenges, and life transitions. 
• Cope with grief and loss. 
• The practice of meditation. 
• Celebrate sacred rituals. Please provide advanced notice for ritual requests. 
• Address concerns about ethical decision-making. 
• Assist in accessing additional resources. 
• Access to the Multi-Faith Centre, open 24/7 for prayer, meditation, and reflection. The Multi-Faith Centre is located on the lower level, near the bottom of the staircase and the Spiritual Care Office. 

Spiritual Care Framework

Developed in partnership with Spiritual Care volunteers, the purpose of the Spiritual Care Framework is to meet the spiritual needs of each individual through supportive, attentive and healing interactions that are patient and family-led.

Holistic care

Considering the whole patient: mind, body, spirit and emotions.

• Spiritual Care volunteers will embrace a holistic approach to care, attend to an individual’s beliefs, values, behaviours and experiences related to spirituality, religion, and culture, including techniques such as breathwork, meditation, somatic, grounding and reiki at the patient’s request.  
• Inspire hope, empower healing, and make space for meaningful change.  
• Approach, communicate, and respect diverging patient populations to integrate whole-person care. 

Multi-faith

Offering services that foster practice, observance, inter-faith community support and learning.

• Use inclusive language and interfaith dialogue to include those with no religious faith but who hold ethical and philosophical beliefs.  
• Respectful, constructive, and positive interactions with patients who may hold different religious traditions and spiritual or humanistic beliefs from volunteers. 
• Form partnerships and provide patients with a variety of spiritual support.  
• Maintain dedicated quiet space with resources available for patients and loved ones for prayer, meditation, worship, or quiet reflection. 

Recruitment

An active and ongoing volunteer recruitment to service all patients.

• Support ongoing recruitment of spiritual care volunteers to meet patients’ spiritual care needs
• Implement a recruitment panel to assess prospective candidates.  
• Collaborate with the program manager to refresh the spiritual care training program and recruit senior volunteers to mentor new recruits. 

Hospital integration

Collaboration and awareness within the organization for spiritual care supports.

• Create organizational awareness about the benefits of spiritual care services with respect to improved health outcomes. 
• Work with the communications team and leadership to promote the spiritual care program as a critical component of patient-centered care. 
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to streamline processes to ensure that referrals and patient visits are conducted effectively and efficiently. 

Volunteer education

Commitment to continuous volunteer development.

• Commit to ongoing monthly education and training for all spiritual care volunteers in collaboration with the spiritual care training. 
• Invest in an organizational membership to a spiritual care association for the purpose of online courses, webinars, conferences, and peer-reviewed journals. 
• Conduct an annual spiritual care volunteer retreat for team building, volunteer development and spiritual exploration. 

Community engagement

Engagement within the community to spread program awareness and develop new partnerships.

• Collaborate with community partners to engage patients’ religious, humanistic, or cultural needs. 
• Attend local spiritual care community events to raise program awareness, develop new partnerships, and facilitate recruitment of program volunteers.

Spiritual Care Program