Our Mahi/Work
We explored the Aotearoa New Zealand spiritual care environment to understand how spiritual care can be improved across our healthcare systems at a policy, institutional and practice level.
What did we want to know?
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There are two questions we aimed to answer:
Within Aotearoa New Zealand’s healthcare systems, how can spiritual care services be best structured and integrated to achieve the provision of inclusive, equitable, holistic care for all people?
What does excellent, inclusive, culturally safe spiritual care look like and mean in practice in Aotearoa New Zealand?
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To understand the existing spiritual care needs in Aotearoa New Zealand.
To understand Aotearoa New Zealand spiritual care practitioners’ existing spiritual care provision.
To investigate how spiritual care might be best provided to Aotearoa New Zealand’s diverse populations as informed by Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
To develop consensus-based spiritual care recommendations and an action plan for Aotearoa New Zealand healthcare.
What did we do?
Phase One: Whanaungatanga
July 2024 - March 2025
In this phase we connected with communities around Aotearoa New Zealand to start a national conversation about spiritual care.
January 2025 - September 2026
Phase Two: Mapping the Spiritual Care Environment
In this phase we explored the spiritual care needs of communities and what the current provisioning of this looks like.
Phase Three: National Wānanga
September 2026
In this phase we brought together key communities to develop recommendations and an action plan for creating change within current health system.