Program Structure
- Identify resident's spiritual preferences by consulting with the resident, family, and any significant others.
- Plan for residents' attendance at spiritual services in keeping with the resident's beliefs using the guidelines. Invite and encourage successful participation despite cognitive impairment.
- Invite and encourage family to participate with the resident if they wish to. Discuss with family past spiritual experiences shared with the resident and ways to build on them in present faith services adapting for the residents present functional ability.
- Inservice staff on the faiths and spiritual needs of the residents in the facility and staff role in facilitating the satisfaction of those needs.
- Start a program to teach interested volunteers or family how to spend 15 minutes of spiritual sharing with residents who need 1:1 visits in order to connect with their past faith practices.
- Plan a meeting with all of the ministers of the faith that service your facility. Discuss the spiritual needs of residents with dementia and their families and the adaptations necessary to allow these residents to take part in services. Ask if members of their congregations could gather religious symbols of their faith that could be used in small worship services for residents at your home.
- Help to coordinate a small evening service that could be attended by families who work. It can be held in a lounge on the resident's unit. May alternate types of faith services weekly according to the spiritual needs and faiths of the residents on each floor.
- Explore the possibility of having an interfaith service for residents with dementia and their families surrounding a holiday such as Thanksgiving or another holiday.
