Testing reflective tools to support care home residents living with dementia with their spiritual needs

Abstract

AbstractThe needs of older people with a ‘diverse’ cultural or faith background are not well represented in social care research in general, and particularly of those living in care homes where an estimated 70% of residents are living with dementia. Additionally, the spiritual needs of care home residents are often overlooked or misunderstood by care workers, resulting in a double lack of recognition. It is common for care workers to relate spirituality primarily to religion. This can be the case, but spirituality mainly reflects (the need for) a purpose and meaning in life. Evidence demonstrates that spirituality and religion can help reduce or stabilise cognitive disorders or enable people to develop coping strategies to help accept a cognitive disorder, maintain relationships, hope, and find meaning in their lives, thus improving their sense of wellbeing. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of creating dementia‐specific spiritual assessment tools and stakeholder training. This proposed study helps fill that gap.Pre‐liminary findings will be presented on a Reflective Spirituality Tool (RST) that is tested in care homes in England. Through interviews with care home residents living with dementia, their relatives/friends, care home staff, managers, and faith leaders, the RST will be re‐developed to ensure it reflects the diversity of people living in residential care. Furthermore, care home residents were asked to bring an artefact to their interview that represented a sense of peace, safety, or wellbeing to them. The artefacts were then photographed and collected in a ‘Gallery of Spiritualities’. These two tools aim to inform people involved in dementia care and reflect upon the diverse spiritual needs that care home residents have. Furthermore, the tools help inform care home managements, care home staff, nursing students and policy makers on how to improve spiritual care for people living with dementia in residential care.