Improving Spiritual Care at the End of Life by Reclaiming the Ars moriendi

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-743
Author(s):  
Columba Thomas ◽  
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Direct Approach ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Art Of Dying

Ars moriendi, or The Art of Dying, was a highly influential fifteenth-century text designed to guide dying persons and their loved ones in Catholic religious practices at a time when access to priests and the sacraments was limited. Given recent challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic, there is a heightened need to offer additional forms of guidance related to death and dying. This essay examines the content of the Ars moriendi and considers how key principles from the work apply to the current context. The Ars moriendi, in its direct approach to the salvation of souls and thoughtful treatment of struggles faced by dying persons, offers a much-needed supplement to typical approaches to death and dying today.

A Contemporary Ars moriendi for End-of-Life Care

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Anthony C. Ughetti ◽  
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Medical Providers ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
Art Of Dying ◽  
Hospice And Palliative Care

There was a time when the clergy, medical providers, philosophers, and individuals agreed on how to achieve a happy and holy death. In the fourteenth century, as a response to the horror of the black death, a document emerged that was accepted and adopted by these disparate parties. Translated as the art of dying, the ars moriendi was a set of common instructions and coaching tools to facilitate a peaceful transition for providers and patients alike. The contemporary world needs a new ars moriendi that articulates a triple aim: standardizing the service terms and definitions of hospice and palliative care, promoting early initiation of end-of-life services, and de-emphasizing services provided by intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency departments. If consensus could coalesce around these three goals, the experience of death and dying could be significantly improved.

scholarly journals Spiritual Care at The End Of Life: Western Views and Islamic Perspectives

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Wafa ‘a Qasem Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Patient Care ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
The Past ◽  
Education Of Patients ◽  
Core Components ◽  
The Uk

The concept of spiritual and religious care, as core components of palliative care for patients at end of life stages, has achieved significant organized applications and advances in modes of intervention and tools. The past two decades have witnessed waves of secularization with impacts of the concepts of spirituality and chaplaincy that diverged away from religion, more so in the UK and some European countries as compared to US applications. Spirituality became more generic and broad that revealed itself in helping and education of patients and families to earth and think of meaning and purpose of life, suffering death and dying. The issues of spirituality and religiosity in the Islamic culture, teachings and attitudes towards patient care at terminal stages of life, is distinguished by clarity and harmony in view of clarity of Muslim beliefs and interpretations concerning purpose, meaning and mission of human life on this earth, end-of-life care and the afterlife. This paper will address the contemporary western diverse concepts of spirituality, its relationship with religiosity in terminal patient care, and will elaborate on the holistic Islamic views and attitudes towards this stage of human life.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 02 No. 02 April’18. Page : 65-70

scholarly journals Receiving Spiritual Care: Experiences of Dying and Grieving Individuals

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Bonavita ◽  
Oksana Yakushko ◽  
Melissa L. Morgan Consoli ◽  
Steve Jacobsen ◽  
Rev. Laura L. Mancuso
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Qualitative Methodology ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Spiritual Needs ◽  
Individual Perceptions ◽  
Hospice And Palliative Care

The study examines the perceptions of interfaith spiritual care, received through a volunteer hospice organization, by 10 individuals facing death and dying. Qualitative methodology based on the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was used to collect and analyze the data. Four superordinate themes reflected meanings ascribed to spirituality and spiritual care in facing end of life: Vital Role of Spirituality in the End-of-Life Care, Definitions and Parameters of Spirituality and Interfaith Spiritual Care, Distinct Aspects of Interfaith Spiritual Care, and Unmet Spiritual Needs. The results expand an understanding of the role of spirituality and spiritual care as part of the hospice and palliative care through attention to individual perceptions and experiences, as well as to ways to expand attention to spirituality within the hospice care.

An Introduction to ARS Moriendi

1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
John E. Fryer
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Educational Objectives ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
Art Of Dying ◽  
Do So

“The arte and krafte to knowe well how to die” came to the fore in religious texts of the fifteenth century that were intended to be of value both to the dying person and those who would survive him. Ars Moriendi, the art of dying, related the fact of mortality to the individual's total way of life. The communication and application of knowledge concerning dying and death is valuable today as well. This article introduces a new national confederation known as Ars Moriendi that has educational objectives in this field. Projected functions of the group are briefly described, and those possibly interested in becoming a part of the organization are invited to do so.

scholarly journals The Art of Dying Well according to Erasmus of Rotterdam and Teresa of Ávila

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
Dominika Sieruta
Keyword(s):  
Death And Dying ◽  
Desiderius Erasmus ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Teresa Of Avila ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
The Common ◽  
Art Of Dying ◽  
Catholic Tradition

Contemporary conversations about death and dying are lost and unsatisfying on many levels. This phenomenon subsists not only in fields like bioethics, but also in religion and spirituality. Modern culture is preoccupied with seeking ways to live a longer, youthful life, ignoring the inevitable forthcoming of death. One period during which the topic of death and dying was reflected upon by the common Christian was between the fifteenth and the seventeenth centuries, during which a specific genre of literature was formed: ars moriendi. This genre attempted to provide intellectual, cultural and religious answers as to how death should be understood and ritualized. Two spiritual writers who contributed to the understanding of ars moriendi are Desiderius Erasmus and Teresa of Ávila. What unites these figures of the Catholic tradition is their attempt to show that preparation for death is a lifelong process of cultivating appropriate virtues.

Epilogue

Last Acts ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 147-168
Author(s):  
Maggie Vinter
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Music Video ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
History Of ◽  
Capitalist State ◽  
Art Of Dying

The epilogue explores what continued relevance ars moriendi ideas have for artistic, political, and social practice. Following The Hour of Our Death, Philippe Ariès’s history of Western approaches to mortality, the notion that the art of dying is lost has become a commonplace. In this view, the end of life has been medicalized, sanitized, and monetized to the point where it can no longer be understood as a practice. Rather, it marks perhaps the final site where individuals are fully subsumed into a biopolitical and capitalist state. To complicate this narrative, the epilogue considers a number of disparate efforts to sustain an art of dying into the modern and postmodern eras, including John Donne’s preparations for death, Elizabeth Jocelin’s The Mothers Legacie to Her Unborn Childe;Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa; and “Lazarus,” the final music video David Bowie released before his death. As they echo the devotional tracts and dramas of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, these texts and artworks perpetuate arts of dying today into the present.

The implications of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 for advance care planning and decision making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Chapman ◽  
Ben Lobo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Advance Care Planning ◽  
Care Planning ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Advance Care ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Mental Capacity Act ◽  
End Of Life Decision

This chapter provides an overview of the MCA’s impact on end-of-life care. It situates the MCA in the current context of policy and practice. It describes how the MCA can be used to improve care, enable people to express and protect choices, and empower and enable the professional and/or the proxy decision maker. It also presents an introduction and explanation of the role of the IMCA and how it might apply to advance care planning (ACP) and end of life decision making, and an explanation of the legal and ethical process involved in reaching best interest decisions, especially for potentially vulnerable people in care homes and other settings.

scholarly journals Conversations About Death and Dying, End-of-Life Care Plans and Preferences Between Aging Parents and Adult Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 417-417
Author(s):  
Hyo Jung Lee ◽  
Jacobbina Jin Wen Ng
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
Aging Parents ◽  
Care Plans

Abstract This study aims to investigate whether attitude and perception on late-life death and dying, end-of-life care plans and preferences could be better understood from current values shared between aging parents and their adult children in the multi-cultural city-bound country, Singapore. We are in the process of interviewing 20 aging parent-adult child dyads. Up to date, six semi-structured interviews were completed and transcribed. We performed Content analysis to analyze the transcripts. Preliminary findings showed that both aging parents and adult children rarely discussed this issue, although parents had their own plans or preferences. The major barriers against open conversations about death and dying of aging parents include: the perception of not-yet time to talk about this issue (without knowing when the right time is) and tendency to have conversations about death in tandem with finances, but not death itself. Although specific end-of-life care plans or arrangements were not thought out thoroughly, aging parents expressed a high level of trust and reliance on close family members’ decisions regarding their end-of-life care. They tended to agree on joint decision-making process within family, even though adult children had no or unmatched ideas about their aging parents’ end-of-life wishes. This did not necessarily align with previous findings in Western countries, underscoring individuals’ control over their own death and dying process. Open conversation within family, family-involved advance care planning, or joint decision-making processes may be warranted to promote quality of life and death in older Singaporeans and well-being of their family members of all ages.

scholarly journals Before the 2020 Pandemic: an observational study exploring public knowledge, attitudes, plans, and preferences towards death and end of life care in Wales

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ishrat Islam ◽  
Annmarie Nelson ◽  
Mirella Longo ◽  
Anthony Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
End Of Life ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
End Of Life Care ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Death And Dying ◽  
Service Utilisation ◽  
Life Care ◽  
Manner Of Death ◽  
Attitudes Towards Death

Abstract Background Understanding public attitudes towards death and dying is important to inform public policies around End of Life Care (EoLC). We studied the public attitudes towards death and dying in Wales. Methods An online survey was conducted in 2018. Social media and the HealthWiseWales platform were used to recruit participants. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Results 2,210 people participated. Loss of independence (84%), manner of death, and leaving their beloved behind were the biggest fears around death and dying. In terms of EoLC, participants sought timely access to care (84%) and being surrounded by loved ones (62%). Being at home was less of a priority (24%). Only 50% were familiar with Advance Care Planning (ACP). A lack of standard procedures as well as of support for the execution of plans and the ability to revisit those plans hindered uptake. The taboo around death conversations, the lack of opportunities and skills to initiate discussion, and personal fear and discomfort inhibited talking about death and dying. 72% felt that we do not talk enough about death and dying and advocated normalising talking by demystifying death with a positive approach. Health professionals could initiate and support this conversation, but this depended on communication skills and manageable workload pressure. Participants encouraged a public health approach and endorsed the use of: a) social media and other public platforms, b) formal education, c) formal and legal actions, and d) signposting and access to information. Conclusions People are ready to talk about death and dying and COVID-19 has increased awareness. A combination of top-down and bottom-up initiatives across levels and settings can increase awareness, knowledge, and service-utilisation-drivers to support health professionals and people towards shared decisions which align with people’s end of life wishes and preferences.

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