Spirituality and Religion in End-of-Life Care Ethics: The Challenge of Interfaith and Cross-Generational Matters

The complexity of illness and care needs at the end of life often include religious and spiritual issues. Religion and spirituality can be important coping mechanisms for meeting these challenges. However, although many people may want spirituality incorporated as a component of their care, spiritual needs are not always recognised or supported by the existing social care and medical systems. To address the need for more information on these issues, we present two social work cases that draw from our clinical experiences among patients with life-limiting disease conditions. Through these cases highlighting interfaith and cross-generational family issues, we identify different ways social workers may become involved in their interactions with patients' spiritual or religious concerns at the end of life. We conclude with suggestions for providing appropriate and culturally competent social and health care that promote aging in place for persons with life-limiting illness conditions.