Dr. Diane Bridges on Creating Multifaith Resources

Culturally Sensitive Religious & Spiritual Care: Creating Resources

Trillium Acute Care Health Centre, comprising approximately 800 inpatient beds and numerous outpatient clinics, resides in a very diverse cultural catchment area. 49% of the people in our region are not Canadian born. This provides many challenges and opportunities for ministering to patients and staff alike.

In an effort to celebrate this diversity from a spiritual and religious perspective, our chaplaincy team (another multifaith chaplain and I) met with staff, volunteers, and members of our multifaith council community to determine how we could best integrate culturally sensitive practices into our provision of spiritual care.

We wanted to learn about the spiritual and religious issues at a grass roots level and how we might begin to address them. Staff told us they wanted to learn more about the needs and beliefs of patients as they relate to health care, especially in matters concerning crisis around birth, death, organ and tissue donation, sterilization, dietary needs, blood transfusions, and conflicts in belief systems. They expressed a need for access to language translation manuals and quick information on bereavement care, end-of-life issues, and funeral protocols for various cultures. They also wanted to learn to assess patients’ risk of spiritual distress and guidelines to help them make timely and appropriate referrals.

The chaplaincy department did not distribute questionnaires. Instead, we spoke personally with staff over lunch, on their units, and during education rounds. We brought our concerns forward to our spiritual and religious care multifaith council for guidance and assistance. We spoke to our volunteers on an individual basis and at our quarterly open forums. We discovered that much of the necessary work simply required dedicated energy to garner already existing resources and to compile all the information for rapid access.

Part of our plan was to create an in-house web page where we could systematically publish our collated information. We also wanted an attractive hard copy of an educational tool for our volunteers and staff to have on hand for study sessions, personal use, and as an orientation guide to improve their understanding of the health care team’s expectations of them with respect to, for example, accountability, confidentiality, etc.

Our Muslim volunteer, a member of our multifaith council, championed a simple question-and-answer translation manual. This would enable staff and patients to point to questions in Arabic and give yes and no answers. We eventually had 26 languages translated and posted on our web page so that staff could print these out on their units as needed. The faith beliefs and practices of the major religious groups, their bereavement and funeral resources, and our newsletter, were all added to our web page.

With help from our hospital organizational development team, we were able to create a three-ring binder divided into three sections: Orientation Guide, Addressing Spiritual Well Being, and Multi Faith Practices.

Over the past year, we have been very encouraged by positive responses. Referrals from staff indicate that they understand better how to acknowledge, assess, and refer people at risk for spiritual distress. Many say that they are feeling more comfortable in including spiritual care in a patient’s care plan. They feel that being able to “click on” to spiritual and religious care information on the computer saves valuable time.

Similarly, volunteers are stretching their learning base, and people in our community say that their needs for sensitive cultural and religious care are being integrated into their recovery process.

This is encouraging for all of us. The bottom line is that when we understand the needs of our multifaith community, we can ensure in advance that roadblocks do not prevent religious and culturally sensitive care.

(If you are interested in purchasing the manual, please contact Diane at DBridges@nt.thc.on.ca )

Do you have thoughts about education & research you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail to info@PlainViews.org.