Spiritual care

Spiritual care is part of whole person care at Western Health. Our trained spiritual care practitioners provide compassionate emotional and spiritual support to patients, families, carers and staff across all sites and services.

We respect the individual beliefs, values and cultural backgrounds of everyone we care for. You do not need to be religious to access spiritual care.

Spiritual care practitioners can:

• provide general emotional and spiritual support
• offer end of life and bereavement support
• explore issues of meaning and purpose
• explore issues around hope, self-care, integrating grief etc
• provide emotional and spiritual support for staff
• offer specific religious and faith-based support.

We offer a safe, compassionate space where you can explore your hopes, fears, beliefs or emotions. Members of our Spiritual Care team have qualifications in theology, counselling and related fields such as psychology and social work. We share a commitment to providing you the best spiritual care, no matter your background.

We also maintain close relationships with external faith organisations, such as the Islamic Council of Victoria, the Buddhist Council of Victoria, and various partner parishes to ensure that we can make appropriate connections when a need arises beyond our scope of practice.

Spiritual care is available to:

• patients at all Western Health hospitals and services
• family members and carers
• staff and volunteers.

Care is offered in inpatient settings and during outpatient visits when needed.

You can ask a nurse, doctor, or other clinical staff member to contact the Spiritual Care team on your behalf. You may also be visited directly by a spiritual care practitioner during your stay.

We have Prayer and Reflection Rooms available at Footscray Hospital and Sunshine Hospital. The rooms are located adjacent to the Spiritual Care offices, and are open all hours, every day. They are shared places of peace, quiet, prayer, reflection, and meditation, and all are welcome.

Sacred texts, including the Qur’an and Bible, and prayer mats are kept in the Prayer and Reflection Rooms. These are available for patients, visitors, and staff. We kindly ask that all resources in the Prayer and Reflection Rooms are left there so others may also use them.

For more information, visit Spiritual Care Australia.