Gallery of Spiritualities
About the Gallery
The Gallery of Spiritualities is a collection of photographs developed as part of the SPIRIT in Care guide (PDF), created during the SpiritDem project. The gallery is designed to support people who live and work in care homes in recognising and reflecting on the diverse spiritual needs of residents. Through carefully selected images, it encourages conversation, understanding, and person-centred care, helping staff, residents, and families explore what gives meaning, comfort, connection, and purpose in later life.
- Name of project: SpiritDem
- My name: Olivia Luijnenburg
What are the ‘spiritual needs’ of care home residents?
What is spirituality in care? How can care home staff attend to someone’s spiritual needs? Spirituality and spiritual wellbeing are very important when caring for residents in care homes. People often think that spirituality only relates to religion. When a care home resident says they are not religious, it is often assumed that they do not have spiritual needs, or that these needs are too complex to understand.
To clarify what the spiritual needs of care home residents might be, the SPIRIT in Care guide was developed. As part of this, care home residents were interviewed and asked to think of something that was very important to them. This ‘something’ could be an object, a person, a space, a song, or anything the resident had in mind. It had to relate to fond memories, good feelings, a sense of security, or a sense of inner peace.
Where possible, photographs were taken of these ‘things of affection’. This collection resulted in a ‘Gallery of Spiritualities’ of which you can see the photographs here. A quote from the interviews gives context to what residents shared and how it reflects their idea of spirituality and spiritual wellbeing.
1: Thing of affection: View from his bed.
Interviewer: So… I just asked you what is important to you.
Participant: They are all very important to me…
Interviewer: (…) Yeah… Your family is important to you?
Participant: Yes…
Interviewer: [Looks at the wall] And so, I see some picture up there, is that Jamaica?
Participant: What..?
Interviewer: The pictures up there, is that in Jamaica? [Points at pictures]
Participant: That’s Jamaica, yes… (…) That’s my house.
Interviewer: It’s your house? You still have a house in Jamaica?
Participant: Yes… [A tear is welling up in his right eye now] My son lives there.
Interviewer: So it makes you a bit emotional…
Participant: Yes… [Voice is softer and higher, as if he is crying]
Interviewer: Is it Jamaica? Or your family?
Participant: Yes…
Interviewer: How come it makes you emotional?
Participant: They all mean a lot to me… [Another tear running down his cheek and he takes it away with the tissue].
2: Thing of affection: Mobile phone for contact with daughter in America.
Participant: I have only one daughter… and she is in USA…married and one… one daughter as well. And generally I always think about them. Because, I mean, she tries to come, eh, every six months. (…) But it’s still, it’s… I wait for her phone call every single night. And if she… doesn’t then I start [giggling] sending her message! That I’m worrying, where is she, or whatever happening. (…) That, that is always my concern, really. After, after my husband died, then, eh, I always loved my daughter very much really. [Giggles]. So, I’m always concerned about her, all the time.
3: Thing of affection: Television in his room.
Interviewer: Is there something that… like when you are sad for instance… do you go to something or someone or do you maybe watch some television…
Participant: I might… I might watch some television, I might put the stereo on, might be rather than see someone…
Interviewer: Yeah? You like watching television?
Participant: Yeah.
Interviewer: And you, and do you listen to music a lot?
Participant: A fair bit, fair bit, not too much. I like, I’d rather watch the television, that’s the main thing.
Interviewer: And what do you like to watch?
Participant: I watch, I watch, Coronation Street, East Enders, that’s what I like watching.
4: Thing of affection: Knitting and puzzles – keeping busy.
Participant: Well… I knit a lot… And then I give a lot of it to charities. You know… to orphanages for example…
Interviewer: Yes… Do you enjoy the knitting?
Participant: Yes… I’m very fast. Been doing it my whole life, you know…
(…)
Interviewer: And what do you enjoy about doing the puzzles?
Participant: Oh, it keeps me busy. And I use a dictionary… it keeps me... [taps her finger on her head a few times, I assume indicating that it keeps her brain work]. I like it…
5: Thing of affection: Shrine of Hindu Gods.
Interviewer: And so, are those rituals special to you? Do you… connect to the deity?
Participant: Yeah, because it’s part of… religious celebration.
Interviewer: Hmmm, yeah… And so, is that important to you in terms of tradition or what it represents? Can you explain it to me a little bit? What it does to you?
Participant: (…) No, I think… I’m not sure I can explain it to you (…) But it gives me some satisfaction.
(…)
Participant: (…) And in the morning, because, usually people have breakfast first thing in the morning. But I don’t have breakfast before my shower. So… my procedure is… every morning after my shower I do my religious prayers. It takes about an hour. I do my religious prayers, and then I have my breakfast.
6: Thing of affection: Bob Marley and (reggae) music.
Participant: I like Bob Marley and…Yeah, I like reggae music. [Starts ticking with his finger on the table now].
Interviewer: Yeah, I think every time I come down, I hear you listening [to music]!
Participant: Yeah, I… (…) I’m reaaally love music… to me heart.
7: Thing of affection: Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, ‘Ode to Joy.’
Participant: Yes, yes. Ehm, when I’m in very deep depression, which doesn’t come very often…(…) I look in my bottom drawer of my night table (points at the night table) and there’s a… a… ehm… God (whispering)… eh… a piece of music which is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and the ‘Ode to Joy’. And I turn it up maximum noise and that cheers me up. Very much indeed. Because, to say that everybody will be… brothers… Alle Menschen werden Brüder… is wonderful, under the soft wing of joy. So that track cheers me up.
8: Thing of affection: Photo book of memories.
Participant: Yeah, I had a… I had twenty albums of photographs…
Interviewer: Yes.
Participant: … which I knew I couldn’t bring with me. So, I picked out the ones that meant something to me, family… Not holidays, not scenery, but… family and friends. [She has now opened the book and goes through it]. And… this means a lot to me. Ehm… from my father as a baby, to my children, my grandchildren. And that means something to me, yes.
Interviewer: That’s a really important part of your…
Participant: Eh, yes, yes. Family and friends.
Interviewer: Yes, exactly…
Participant: Family and friends.
Interviewer: Yes… And you told me that you had a lot go through… Ehm, did you pick out specific pictures or was this a book that you had already made and…
Participant: No, no, no, I just picked out… different moments in my life, like being born…
9: Thing of affection: Conference booklet on World War II ghetto.
Participant: Well, when you ask me about spirituality… I’m… not sure of what you mean or what it means… But I’m thinking of what… makes me feel to life is perhaps worth living and that people are not so bad. And some are amazingly good. And maybe, that… that is something that is good that what I have learned. (…)
Interviewer: And that that is a sort of a spiritual sense for you?
Participant: Well, I don’t know what you mean by spirituality! [Laughs]
Interviewer: [Laughs]
Participant: Some people ask me ‘How do you feel about Jewish?’ for instance. And then again, I think I’m proud… I might not have been here had I not known these very brave people. (…)
10: Thing of affection: Respect from fellow residents and carers.
Participant: But the respect, you know. But the respect, respect means… they... they no discrimination, that why you… ‘why this gentleman, we don’t want to see the meat’. Nobody said that. Nobody said that, that eating meat. Hindu, Hindu people, sometimes they don’t like to see the meat… you know? (…) They don’t want to see the meat very near. But… here… nothing to worry.
(…)
Participant: My mind is that… the people that do not interfere with religions… (…) And these people they don’t interfere anything. If my friends or my family member and anyone come, they say to welcome. They will sit with you… you have a chat with them… Then… nobody is going to insult you and, eh, the care people, if the care people are there, they’re offering also to my relatives or my friends some tea, coffee or anything… So they also, they are very happy. They told me that this place is very good, you know?
Principal Investigator
Research Associate