Multifaith Care For Sick And Dying Children And Their Families

What do you need to know in order to provide the best possible care for sick children of different faiths? What, in the context of the young person's faith, might it be helpful to know to support the child and the family, improve care, communicate sensitively and avoid causing offence? Drawing on extensive, evidence-based research and practice, this practical resource addresses the multi-faith needs of sick and dying children and young people in hospitals and the wider community. Covering Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism, it provides the key information needed to help multi-disciplinary healthcare staff offer the best, culturally-appropriate care to sick children and their families. The book discusses daily, palliative, end of life and bereavement care in a range of settings, including hospitals, hospices, schools and home. The information provided covers those aspects of the religions discussed that are essential for healthcare staff to understand, including modesty and hygiene, taboos, food and prohibited products, age-related issues, sacred objects, visitors, and the expectations of the family. It includes important information on the issues of disability and mental health in each faith as well as addressing the significance within different faith traditions of the transitions from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. A comprehensive resource that uniquely focuses on the care needs of sick children from different faiths, this book will be of immeasurable value to multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses, bereavement support and palliative care workers, carers, counsellors, chaplains and arts therapists.

What is meant by 'spiritual care'? How can we assess and communicate the needs of a child in hospital effectively if we each have conflicting interpretations of 'spiritual'? This book proposes that we use a language of 'connectedness', which can fully express a child's feelings about, and understanding of, their hospital experience, rather than relying on religious or medical language. In doing so, assessments can be made purely on information given by the child and their emotional and spiritual needs can be communicated between professionals using a shared professional language, regardless of their own faith, religion or secular outlook. The book fully explains the concept of connectedness and outlines a practical assessment tool that uses play and storytelling to connect with the child and gather information about their hospital experience, their relationships with others while in the hospital setting, their feelings about their current state and their needs. This book will improve communication between medical practitioners, chaplains and other support services, enabling them to provide the best support for children in their care. It will also be of interest to academics in healthcare, theology and psychology.

Exploring both principles and best practice of the spiritual care of sick children and young people, this remarkable and inspiring book equips the reader to think critically and creatively about how to provide care in hospitals, hospices and other care contexts for ill and disabled children. Written for staff from any allied health discipline, the authors explore the potential spiritual needs and issues faced by sick children and young people. They provide evidence-based practice principles, and a range of activity-based interactions that empower the child or young person and expand discussion of meaning and identity. The book includes stories and multidisciplinary practice examples, as well as many ideas; practical activities; discussion of work with families, and also of the various tensions and issues that can emerge. Based on evidence-based practice and research carried out by the Chaplaincy Team at Birmingham Children's Hospital, the book will be helpful and inspiring reading for chaplains, nurses, play and youth workers, therapists and anyone else involved in the care of sick children and young people.

As the global marketplace grows and becomes more complex, increasing stress is placed upon employees. Businesses are acknowledging this change in work habits by adapting the work place to offer support through multifaith chaplaincy. Multifaith chaplaincy is based on developing relationships of trust between diverse faith communities and the public workplace. Through the experience of starting the first multifaith chaplaincy in Canary Wharf, the author offers insights into current conditions and challenges of chaplaincy in the business community. Writing as an Anglican priest, Fiona Stewart-Darling shows the importance of chaplaincy teams drawing on different faith traditions. This book is an important contribution to the emerging debate around the role of chaplaincy in faith and business communities. This research will be of particular interest to those working in or setting up chaplaincies in different contexts such as hospitals, prisons, town centre chaplaincies working with businesses and business leaders, particularly those involved in diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Drawing on a range of approaches developed by paediatric chaplaincy teams worldwide, this edited collection provides best principles, practices and skills of chaplaincy work with neonates, infants, children, young people and their families. By engaging with paediatric chaplaincy from an international, multifaith perspective, contributors from around the world and different faith traditions show what good spiritual, religious and pastoral care for children and their families looks like. The book contains contributions from specialists who work with children with mental health issues or profound disabilities, as well as chapters that focus on how best to provide palliative and bereavement care. Includes resources and activities for use in specialist care situations and tools for assessment, making this a must-have for any paediatric chaplaincy team working in a hospital or hospice.

Showing how spiritual care is practiced in a variety of different contexts such as healthcare, detention and higher education, as well as settings that may not have formal chaplaincy arrangements, this book offers an original and unique resource for Hindu chaplains to understand and practice spiritual care in a way that is authentic to their own tradition and that meets the needs of Hindus. It offers a Hindu perspective for all chaplains to inform their caregiving to Hindus. The book explores the theological and metaphysical roots of Hindu chaplaincy and puts forward the case for Hindu chaplaincy as a valuable spiritual practice. It covers the issues that arise in specific locations, such as college, healthcare, prison, military and the corporate sector. Chapters also examine Hindu pastoral care offered in other, 'non-chaplaincy' settings, such as LGBT centres, social justice work and environmental activism. Made up of some 30 essays by chaplains, scholars and other important voices in the field, Hindu Approaches to Spiritual Care provides spiritual caregivers with a comprehensive theoretical and practical approach to the relationship of Hinduism and chaplaincy.

Drawing on current scholarship and research by authors with experience of a range of International contexts who are experts in their field, this accessible guide focuses on approaches that encourage spiritual, physical, mental and emotional development in children. By outlining a range of lenses through which readers can reflect on their ministry with children and their families. this book offers inspiration to help them improve their practice. Up-to-date research and thinking provides a fresh and flexible understanding of work with children and families. It also prepares readers to develop and support a team that can take responsibility for the key areas needed in an effective children's ministry. With each chapter featuring practice examples, relevant theory, theological reflections, opportunities for contemplation and suggestions for further reading, Re-Thinking Children's Work in Churches is an accessible and indispensable guide for those wishing to focus on the holistic development of the child.

Shaping our journey into the Divine This moving and enlightening book presents us with a compelling vision of what can happen when we take the opportunity to connect stories and rituals--a vision of individuals and communities transformed through a deeper sense of connection to our loved ones, our communities, and God. Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley reveal how when stories and rituals work together, they have the potential to be both mighty and dangerous--mighty in their ability to lift us up and help us make these connections beyond ourselves and dangerous in challenging us to learn to live with complexity and contradiction. They show how much more meaningful a baptism, wedding, or funeral can be when liturgy is made to include and recognize the personal stories of those involved. Suddenly, these familiar life-cycle rituals are infused with new life as participants become connected in a narrative web linking past and present, human and divine. Newly created rituals can also help us connect our stories to the divine story, giving meaning to what we experience and bringing us closer to God. Ministers, worship leaders, and pastoral caregivers can use this approach to storytelling and ritual to find ways to bring together worship and pastoral care.