Spiritual Care Needs for Cancer Patients: Case Study

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Spiritual Care needs
“Addressing spirituality was fundamental to a palliative care [team] providing compassionate and holistic care” (Seccareccia & Brown, 2009, p. 805). Spiritual care can be implemented into this situation to support this patient and his family. Nawawi, Balboni & Balboni (2012) found that “patients experiencing life-threatening illness want the medical team to address their [religion/ spiritual] as part of medical care” (p. 271). As Spear (2014b) identified spiritual care “encompasses the emotional benefits of informal support from relatives and friends, participation in religious or other groups and more formal support from an individual trained in pastoral care”. Franck told the spiritual care associate that humour plays a big role in his family but it becomes useless because of his illness and he wishes he can get this good feeling back to the family and also Mary is frustrated and upset with Frank not being open to discuss about their future.
A study found that “spirituality has to do with connectedness with the continuum of life and of energy in the universe” (Seccareccia & Brown, 2009, p. 807). With the use of spiritual care, it can be reassures the patient that his family still loves him no matter what and also ensures access and opportunities for clients and family to address their spiritual, emotional, and religious need and aspirations (SJCG, 2014). In addition, studies have found that with spiritual well-being has been clearly linked to a lower level of anxiety and depression (Benito et al., 2013, p. 2). According to Nawawi et al. (2012), “most patients with advanced disease hold [religion/ spiritual] as an important dimension within their experience of life-threatening disease” (p. 270). When facing ...

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... with their struggles.
Identify what the patient’s goal will look like.
To help Frank identify what his end goal will look like. First, he will need a closer family in order plan the goal. Mary should be getting more support and have a clear idea and plans for their future, especially the financial pieces because that is also the primary causes of Mary’s frustration.
As the counsellor, I wound set up a meeting with Frank, Mary, and other family members that Frank preferred to include in the meeting to talk about their concerns and future. Before the meeting, I need to identify which family member he would like to see them to show up in the meeting with the palliative care team in order to get a more comprehensive side of the family’s stories. During the meeting, Frank and Mary talks about the concerns about their future plan and Frank’s desire to return home.

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