Brief Communication: Call to action: The need to expand spiritual care supports during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Main Authors: Kalliopi Stilos, Rev. Bill Ford, Lesia Wynnychuk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pappin Communications 2021-07-01
• Series: Canadian Oncology Nursing Journal
• Subjects: pandemic; covid-19; palliative care; spiritual care; end of life
• Online Access: http://canadianoncologynursingjournal.com/index.php/conj/article/view/1197

Providing a ‘good death’ for patients dying in acute care is more challenging than ever with the COVID-19 pandemic. Spiritual care teams and palliative care providers strive to address the physical, psychosocial, and spiritual care needs at end of life—for both patients and their families, and often in concert with patients’ own faith groups. During the strict lockdown policy imposed in Ontario, Canada during the pandemic, external faith groups, and religious rituals requiring direct contact were restricted. Delivering spiritual care in our “new normal” environment challenged us to think more broadly, beyond the walls of our own institutions, particularly when external resources exist outside of acute care centres, and are often of paramount importance to dying patients and their families in acute care.