Gesundheitsberufliche und spezialisierte Spiritual Care

Spiritual care, understood as the evidence-based inclusion of the spiritual dimension in clinical contexts, is currently developing as an interprofessional field of activity and interdisciplinary area of research that is also important for oncology. The long-standing endeavor to integrate the spiritual dimension into modern healthcare was taken up and strengthened in the second half of the 20th century by both the hospice movement and the World Health Organization (WHO). In the context of religious and spiritual diversification, spiritual care is required to accommodate a growing diversity of ideas and needs.

This overview article outlines and analyses the background and content of the current debate on interprofessional spiritual care and healthcare chaplaincy. It is shown to what extent spiritual care also constitutes a health professional task and how healthcare chaplaincy can be understood as specialized spiritual care.

Three main reasons can be given for why spiritual aspects should be addressed in oncological care: (1) because the confrontation with a serious illness or the end of life can trigger spiritual distress; (2) because spiritual factors often represent a resource or a problem when coping with illness and dying; and (3) because spiritual beliefs and attitudes can influence therapeutic decisions.