When patients are suffering from an illness that is life-limiting or causes symptoms that negatively impact their quality of life, they often start asking themselves profound questions that go to the heart of what being human entails. People ask questions such as, “Why is this illness happening to me?”, “Will people remember me when I will be gone?”, “Has everyone really left me and am I without support?”, “Is there a God who will help me?”. While it is normal for people to ask themselves such questions in advanced disease, for some people, the inability to find answers to these questions can lead to distress that may prevent them from finding joy and satisfaction in life. Such people suffer from spiritual distress.
Culture and local religious beliefs play an important role in a person’s spirituality. As a consequence, causes and expressions of spirituality differ across countries and cultures. For that reason, spiritual distress is best assessed by approaches and tools that consider the local cultural and religious context. The Department of Onco-Anaesthesia and Palliative Medicine at IRCH-AIIMS, New Delhi, together with collaborators from India and abroad has developed a Hindi-language scale that has been specifically designed to assess spiritual distress in palliative care patients in India.
Please click here to know more about how to use this scale and what the required permissions are to be able to use it.
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