Journeying with Morrie: Challenging Notions of Professional Delivery of Spiritual Care at the End of Life

Abstract

The spiritual welfare of dying people has in recent years moved from the domain of religion to become the concern of health care professionals, particularly as part of the ideal of holism that underpins palliative care. Professional delivery of spiritual care incorporates the features of assessment, control, and treatment which may involve varying degrees of intrusion into the patient's deeply personal inner self. Using a case study approach, this article explores meanings of spirituality and understandings of what is meant by the term “spiritual care.” It argues that biographical and community approaches to spiritual care of dying people may be more congruent with the concept of the “whole person” because this support is rooted in an intimate contextual knowledge of the dying person by the caregiver. This challenges the dominant discourses of professional expertise to embrace informal personal and collective competence in this important aspect of end of life care.