Introduction: Spiritual Assessment and Intervention: Current Directions and Applications

Abstract

SUMMARY There is a growing literature documenting the positive effects of religiousness and spirituality. As a result, the assessment of spirituality, and interventions that tap into this personal resource, are becoming increasingly the focus of research and practice in many populations, including older adults. Spiritual assessment may include a variety of modalities that obtain information about a person's spiritual well-being, history, crises or dilemmas. Such assessments are used to guide pastoral care and/or interventions. Any programs, policy, procedure, or protocol that address the spiritual well-being and needs of individuals can be considered a spiritual intervention. These interventions may consist of activities that strengthen, reinforce or promote the spiritual and religious resources of individuals, or that utilize existing spiritual resources present in the individual to address well-being and needs regarding spirituality and other life domains. It is imperative that as this work moves forward, spiritual assessment and intervention be firmly grounded both conceptually and empirically, and that high standards of scientific rigor are maintained in research and application. Without such attention to detail, both basic and applied research may lack the credibility to make a strong case for meeting the needs of older adults through spiritual assessment and intervention.