Spiritual Care

What is Spiritual Care?

The WHO definition of palliative care includes spiritual care, to address the spiritual and/or religious needs of patients and their families and caregivers in all settings.

Our Reference Group developed the following working definition:
“Spirituality is the dynamic dimension of human life that relates to the way persons (individual and community) experience, express and/or seek meaning, purpose and transcendence, and the way they connect to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, to the significant and/or the sacred.”

Spirituality and spiritual wellbeing are multidimensional, including:
Existential challenges (questions and issues such as identity, meaning, suffering, despair, guilt, shame, reconciliation and forgiveness, freedom and responsibility, hope, love, and joy).
Value based considerations and attitudes (what matters most to each person, such as relationships with oneself, and with family, friends, work, nature, art and culture, ethics and morals, and life itself).
Religious considerations and foundations (faith, beliefs and practices, relationship with God or the ultimate).

What does our Spiritual Care Reference Group do?

Our Reference Group started in 2010 as a multidisciplinary Task Force aiming to encourage, develop and implement spiritual care methods and standards for adequately addressing the spiritual needs of patients, and informal and formal caregivers in all palliative care settings. We became a Reference Group in 2019, focusing on developing evidence-based care models and practices, and promote high quality education.

Our Reference Group connects all health and social care professionals, chaplains, social scientists, researchers, educators, and links with other EAPC taskforces and groups, seeking to develop and disseminate knowledge, research initiatives, educational developments, and implementation projects.

We are actively looking to develop commitment and cooperation between national member organisations of the EAPC and other dedicated national and international institutions. We encourage all EAPC members to support spirituality and spiritual care in palliative care through research, education, and implementation.

The Reference Group is chaired by Ana Quierido Associate Professor in the School of Health Studies, Politecnico de Leiria, Portugal and Bella Vivat, Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, University College London, UK.

covers european journal of palliative care
Click here to access the groups publications in the EJPC archive

Group resources

  • White Paper

    An EAPC white paper on multi- disciplinary education for spiritual care in palliative care

  • Other Documents

    Spiritual Care in Palliative Care: A Systematic Review of the Recent European Literature

  • Task Force

    What activities do EAPC members consider to be spiritual care? Results from a survey on behalf of the EAPC Spiritual Care Task Force

Spiritual care by country

  • Ireland

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life in the Republic of Ireland

  • Spain

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life in Spain

  • Estonia

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life: Estonia 

  • Finland

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life: Finland 

  • Germany

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life: Germany

  • Italy

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life: Italy

  • Netherlands

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life: the Netherlands

  • Switzerland

    Implementing spiritual care at the end of life in Switzerland

  • Belgium

    Recent developments in implementing Spiritual Care in Palliative care in Flanders (Belgium)

  • Netherlands

    Recent developments in implementing Spiritual Care in Palliative care in the Netherlands

  • Austria

    Spiritual Care in Austrian Palliative Care – a brief overview

Gijsberts, M.J.H., 2022. Spiritual Care in Palliative Care: A Physician’s Perspective. Religions, 13(4), p.323.

Best, M et al. (2020). An EAPC white paper on multi-disciplinary education for spiritual care in palliative care. BMC Palliat Care 19, 9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-019-0508-4 (EAPC Board approved copy here)