Spiritual Care Strategy
2023/2024 is the first delivery year of the Spiritual Care Strategy 2023-2026. This Strategy empowers our staff to put spiritual care at the heart of care planning and service delivery. Spiritual care is the practice of loving kindness, empathy and tolerance in daily life. In the healthcare setting, it is about listening to what is important to the person. Spiritual care is a key element of our holistic approach to delivering caring and compassionate high quality, person-centred care for the people of Scotland.
The Strategy sets out four key priorities:
- leading the way in providing inclusive care for all patients, families, volunteers and staff;
- ensuring care planning reflects the holistic nature of healthcare;
- supporting patients, carers, families and staff experiencing loss, grief and bereavement; and
- embedding spiritual care and wellbeing training for healthcare staff and volunteers.
Across the lifespan of the Strategy, we will:
- work with staff and volunteers to promote the spiritual care and wellbeing service;
- engage with staff, patients, visitors and volunteers to promote the benefits of accessing services;
- continue to provide high quality spiritual care support for staff, visitors, patients and volunteers who experience loss, grief and bereavement;
- provide training and support to our staff and volunteers to increase their confidence and capability to provide care planning that is holistic and person-centred; and
- deliver an increased number and range of training and education opportunities for staff and volunteers to embed spiritual care, including reflective practice, in how we work.
