The Hospice Movement Spirituality within the United States' Health Care System

Abstract

With the elderly population growing, there is a great need to improve the quality of end-of-life care. Traditionally, the healthcare industry has focused on the pathology-oriented medical model when assisting terminally ill patients. This focus can lead to patients feeling depressed, anxious, and hopeless about the dying process. By incorporating spirituality into the dying process, the hospice movement diverged from this medical model, but the role of social workers is often divided between these two very different paradigms. This paper discusses spiritual practice theories that hospice social workers can use to benefit the well-being of terminally ill patients while working within the current health care system.