Standards

The Guidelines for Quality Spiritual Care in Health (Guidelines) provide a framework to support a consistent approach to safe and high-quality spiritual care for patients, families, carers and staff. The context for the Guidelines is the acute and sub-acute health care setting inclusive of palliative care and mental health. Other health care settings may find these of use.

Contact:  Cheryl Holmes

The Capability Framework for Spiritual Care Practitioners in Health 2020 seeks to inform spiritual care practice within a professional health care setting.  The Framework outlines a structure compatible with inter-professional practice for the efficient provision of health care. It supports a consistent approach for providing safe and high-quality spiritual care to patients, families, carers and staff.  This Framework outlines a progressive approach to practice, aligned to identified stages of professional development and scope of practice. 

Contact: Cheryl Holmes

This Framework seeks to support a consistent approach to the credentialling process used by external entities (faith and secular communities) in their appointment of spiritual care providers (paid positions and volunteers) to health services. In line with Spiritual Health Association’s Guidelines for Quality Spiritual Care in Health, the Framework assumes an appropriate level of spiritual care management within the health service (i.e., a health service employed spiritual care coordinator/manager/director).

Contact: Cheryl Holmes

This guide provides general principles to support spiritual care documentation for allied health and spiritual care managers and practitioners, and health service executives. It is based upon the Spiritual Care Minimum Data Set Framework and Documenting Spiritual Care in Medical Records.  

Contact: Cheryl Holmes

The Telehealth Guidelines for Spiritual Care were developed in response to changing practices in health care that emerged in the context of COVID-19.

These changes offered increased opportunities to provide care through online platforms and provide advice for the delivery of spiritual care via telehealth. They give an overview for planning, privacy and security, eligibility, setting up for telehealth, and the telehealth encounter. The purpose of the telehealth service is to maintain spiritual care service provision in any context where face to face care is not possible and to extend the opportunities for spiritual care service provision. Telehealth may also be an option when spiritual care providers are unable to be present in the hospital setting. The Guidelines do not replace the telehealth policies and procedures of individual health services which always take precedence.

Contact Cheryl Holmes

The Health Care Chaplaincy Network Quality Indicators were developed by an international panel with representation from SHA. They seek to provide guidance on the indicators of quality spiritual care in health care, the metrics which indicate that quality care is present, and suggested evidence-based tools to measure that quality. 

The target audience includes advocacy groups, professional health care associations, health care administrators, clinical teams, researchers, government and other funders, faith communities, spiritual care professionals, and other stakeholders internationally.

Download the poster by clicking 'Download' below. The accompanying document for the poster can be downloaded here.

The Spiritual Care Australia Standards of Practice offer a guide to healthcare organisations in employing spiritual care practitioners. 

Contact: Richard McMahon, eo@spiritualcareaustralia.org.au

The National Guidelines for Spiritual Care in Aged provide aged care organisations with clear pathways to integrate whole of person care. Developed in partnership with Meaningful Ageing Australia and the National Ageing Research Institute.

Contact: Meaningful Ageing Australia, admin@meaningfulage.org.au