Victor Passos

Commitments of Spiritist Hospital Assistance

The spiritual assistance in hospitals is an individual right; therefore, the Hospital and Doctrinal Institution also has this duty, whatever its philosophy.

When we approach care work, we cannot distance ourselves from the health relation and its definition. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.

Spiritism, however, widens this definition and teaches that health is the state of complete biopsychosocial and spiritual well-being, since it takes into account biological, psychological, social, and spiritual factors that influence the human being in his journey through earthly experience; this humanizes the concept.

Instead of the Medicine of the body, which is still practiced today, Spiritism proposes a new process, that of Medicine of the Soul. 

Health then became more a value of society than of the individual. It is a fundamental right of the human being, which must be ensured without distinction of race, religion, political ideology or socioeconomic status.

Health is therefore a collective value, a good of all, and each should enjoy it individually, without prejudice to others, and jointly with all.

Spiritist Hospital Assistance in Portugal is an effect of this change.

Decree-Law No. 253/09 opened the door to "the right to religious assistance and to the practice of religious acts", and the State was obliged to create"adequate conditions for the exercise of religious assistance in public institutions".

In addition, the "special importance" of the access to spiritual and religious care in the institutions of the National Health Service is recognized. It is “recognized as an essential need, with relevant effects in relation to suffering and illness, contributing to the quality of care”. 

We know that illness is always originated within the Spirit 

We know that there is still much to be done, but everything has a time, as the Spiritual Friends tell us; then gradually we will gain experience and help from study and we will get the doctors to more and more trust the presence of the Spiritists in the Hospitals, especially in the psychological and psychiatric areas. We are not here to disunite, but to approach.

Every Spiritist assistant is like a connection to health and we must show that we are not physicians, but a reinforcement and support to physicians’ therapies.

Spiritual assistance is a public service that is born in the heart of the community of faith. The search for meaning becomes even more intense in a situation of fragility. Knowing that the Spiritual and Religious Assistance Services (SAER) is formed by various options of faith, even applying its dispersed principles, it becomes very important, because more than ever with this we are showing that, united, we have an increased capacity for action, because the greatest challenge in this field is to bring comfort to the patient while respecting the faith of each person by overcoming the barriers of religious proselytism and disrespect for the religious view of the other - the sick person and his family.

We Spiritists know that the disease always has a spiritual origin, and the cause may have occurred in the present or in previous incarnations. Jesus said there was a spirit-body relationship in sickness when, in healing someone, He said,"Your sins are forgiven". We understand these "sins" as "spiritual imbalances", the effects of which Jesus eliminated.

These inter-ecclesial relationships bring us closer to the true Christian, and are a demonstration of man's evolution towards an integral vision. 

Patient help cannot be a race for supporters

It is worth noting that in hospital admission a special care must be given to this matter regarding religious and spiritual issues.

In addition to the right to freedom of faith, guaranteed to all citizens, it is necessary to guarantee a reciprocal relationship of respect for each other's faith and spiritual assistance. The patient is always first in all circumstances; the challenge is in the acceptance, since the patients have the option of choosing the Philosophy they want to receive.

It is understood that experience and the resource of faith surpass the science of health processes, but the common sense and use of a rationalized faith pass a dimension where the dialogue and interaction between the two is possible, that is, between the different strata of the concept of health: professionals, inpatients and family.

It is not a matter of offering spiritual assistance according to religious groups, but according to the personal choice of the patient and his family.

The Spiritists need to understand the magnitude of this step, mainly regarding the responsibility and the discipline to be followed in this hospital work.  And when we speak of responsibility, it is necessary that the groups in connection with the Spiritist Centers become an example of what it is to put into practice the teachings of the Spiritist Codification, in a Community where the preparation of the Assistants Teams must be not only well structured but with knowledge to offer a good support to the patient, and with focus on the spiritual and physical hygiene. 

It is important to understand that we are not only referring to the patient, but also to the medical appointment, the assistance to the family and even to the inpatient and also to the health professionals who come to us for help.

All of these volunteers are aware that "freely you received, freely you give” and this requires surrender, attendance, compliance with the guidelines of hospital management, because there are rules, duties and rights that must be scrupulously followed, and the help to the patient cannot be a race to obtain followers, but it must focus on the love for the neighbor, whatever is his religion. 

Therapy begins by the way we relate

It is also important to clarify that we are not in the Hospitals to heal or to undo obsessions, but rather to comfort, guide, clarify and lift the mood of the patient. Spiritual work must be done in the right places, of course, supported by the notes that we record about the patient to help in the spiritual therapy. Therapy begins at once through the way we relate and it helps in the final purpose of our work, as we know that before we begin this work, we must prepare ourselves and, of course, the Spiritual Friends will be there for us. 

It is then required that the Spiritist Assistants have constant meetings, exchanging suggestions, showing their concerns, in order to increasingly provide a supportive service to the patient, their families and health professionals, more solid and in accordance with the teachings of the Master.

In conclusion, when we are talking about a patient, we must check the idea about the person and be aware that this person as a bodily, psychic and spiritual dimension, which, although externally independent, are internally absorbed in an organism that is ordered and dominates by its own nature.

Therefore, the human soul is the center of the being that has a three-dimensional nature: spiritual, psychic and physical.

This is the essential point - and it is from here that the other parts of the individual are shown, for the soul has only one nucleus. One can therefore say that the whole trilogy of the person (spiritual, psychic and physical) is prepared for this process of development since the person can only become something of what his personal being and his merit achieve.

Bibliography: 

The Gospel According to Spiritism, by Allan Kardec.

Father of Bioethics - Fritz Jahr (1895-1953), art. "Internal Controversies of Christian Churches, Inter-Church Relations."

The Spiritual and Religious Assistance in the Units of ULSAM - Decree-Law nº 253/2009 / Portugal. 

    
Victor Manuel Pereira Passos is a writer and lecturer, and a member of the Associação Espírita Paz e Amor, in the city of Viana do Castelo, Portugal.