‘Two-eyed seeing’: the integration of spiritual care in Aboriginal residential aged care in South Australia

ABSTRACT

It is argued that spirituality acts as a powerful determinant of health and influences the general care experiences of older people living in residential aged care. This impact is significant, especially for Aboriginal residents, whose cultural and spiritual well-being is shown to be strongly connected with divine beliefs, land and community. This study, a qualitative exploration from conversational interviews with 7 Aboriginal residents and 19 carers, aimed to investigate how the Aboriginal residents’ spiritual well-being related to living in residential aged care in South Australia. Participants shared what spirituality meant to them and how spiritual needs are met in aged care centres for Aboriginal residents. Three major themes emerged from the views of the residents and carers: a lack of understanding of spiritual well-being; challenges around aged care plan; and practice and inadequate resources and funding. The main themes and sub-themes contributed to carers’ unawareness around the spiritual care needs of Aboriginal residents. This study concluded there was a requirement for changes in care management and staff approach, and management structure in order to integrate spiritual care into general care for Aboriginal residents in aged care.

KEYWORDS:

• Aboriginal residents
• aged care centers
• healthcare services
• spiritual care
• spiritual care needs
• cultural safety

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Aboriginal residents and staff for sharing their time and views. This paper is an outcome of the project titled ‘Culture and spirituality of older Indigenous Australians – how is it maintained at aged care facilities in South Australia”.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics

Approval for this research was granted by Social & Behavioural Research Ethics Committee, Flinders University and the Aboriginal Health Research Ethics Committee, Australia.

Terminology

In this study, Aboriginal refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Additional information

Funding

This project is funded by School of Nursing & Midwifery and Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at Flinders University of South Australia.