THE DYING SOUL Spiritual
Care at the End of Life
Mark Cobb
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Open University Press 2001
145pp
ISBN 0-335-20053-2
RRP $US28.95 £16.99 $AU52.95
|
What do you mean by “spirituality” and “spiritual care”? This
book sets out to explore these subjects and their place in palliative care, viewed from a variety of aspects - philosophical, theological, sociological, and clinical.
On an academic and intellectual level, this is an excellent book - informative, stimulating, even
challenging. Should “spiritual” be distinct from “existential”? Should nurses and other members of the
team, with no training in theology or philosophy, be able to provide basic spiritual care?
A strong case is made that spiritual care delivered by palliative care services may not be as good as it could be.
This book is not meant to be a practical handbook of spiritual care, but it makes you long for one. For if spiritual care is to be the fourth pillar of palliative care, alongside the physical,
psychological and social, then it probably has to be organised in a similar manner, one that can be understood by all the members of the team. We need
a list of the symptoms and signs of spiritual distress, a classification of problems seen, the treatment options, and a guide to which problems require generalist or specialist pastoral care
management. Whilst this may seem sacrilegious to experts in pastoral care, there will be no improvement in spiritual care across the board until it
is reduced to just another aspect of care and made meaningful and understandable to all members of the team.
My only quibble is that Cobb suggests that palliative care services can only deliver quality spiritual
care if they remain separate from acute medicine and the general hospital. Cobb says that palliative care cannot stay true to its philosophy (and provide
quality spiritual care) if it goes back to the hospital, where it is only a guest on someone else’s territory. As one who runs a palliative care service
in a tertiary referral hospital, I disagree. Palliative care continues to evolve and its principles and practices are needed back in the general hospital,
and it should now be mature and strong enough to stay true to its principles in this milieu.
This book will be of great benefit to anyone working in palliative care who wishes to reflect on
the nature of spirituality and spiritual care and how, in general terms, we might improve the services we provide to our patients and their families. It
is not a practical handbook of spiritual care, but perhaps Cobb can be coaxed into writing a sequel for all us plodders, with no training in things pastoral, that would greatly enhance the spiritual
care our patients receive.
Roger Woodruff
Director of Palliative Care, Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre,
Melbourne, Australia
Author Details
Mark Cobb
is the Senior Chaplin of the Central Sheffield University Hospitals NHS Trusts, Sheffield, UK .
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1. Understanding spirituality 11
2. Expressions of the spiritual 31
3. Dying and death: a spiritual place? 48
4. Who cares for the spirit? 65
5. The place of spirituality in palliative care 83
6. A professional approach to spiritual care 101
7. Developing spiritual care 118
References 136
Index 143
