Spiritual Care: What do I assess?
Hippocrates said,
It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has.
As a Spiritual Care Practitioner, I am often asked what I do. Often I reply that I’m simply trying to help a person to be at peace. I seek to know and serve the person before me.
When life is flowing well, we feel a sense of clarity and hope. When sickness or loss comes along, we often feel uncertainty and chaos. It can be jarring, and one of my roles as a spiritual care practitioner is to help people feel a sense of peace and calm, so after first meeting a person, I may do an assessment. Sometimes they are aware that I’m doing it, often they’re not.
There are several types of assessments to use as a spiritual care practitioner, my favourite and go-to happens to be VITM.
V = Values
I = Identity
T = Transcendent
M = Meaning-making
Meaning provides orientation and balance in a person's life. It's how we understand our lives.
Transcendence represents the anchors that give us hope. These are external. They can include family, pets, God, nature, etc.
Identity relates to those relationships and understandings that help a person know who they are. Are relationships in good order or is reconciliation needed or longed for?
Values are those things that we hold dear. It can be things like walking, cooking for ourselves, being able to drive.
When a person is struggling in any one of these areas, I will then use various types of interventions to help the person have their needs met.
Spiritual care, though, is always patient/resident led. They are the keepers of their own stories and lives.
Do you have any questions that I can answer for you in upcoming posts? If so, please leave them in the comments below!
