CARING FOR MUSLIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF CARE

Caring for Muslims and their families, religious aspects of care by Alix Henley

CARING FOR MUSLIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES, RELIGIOUS ASPECTS OF CARE

Religious beliefs and practices are central to the lives of many Asian people in Britain.

They tend to become even more important at times of personal crisis and isolation such as during illness and in hospital.

An informed understanding of the religious beliefs and values of patients is clearly essential to good patient care.

No health worker would consciously refuse a patient’s request that was connected with his or her religious beliefs or practices.

But where health workers do not know very much about a patient’s religion, they may easily give offence unintentionally, especially in the press of daily business.

Health workers in Britain know the significance of, for example, prayer books and crucifixes, and how to avoid causing unnecessary offence when preparing patients for surgery.

They are likely to be less confident of what they are doing when, for example, a Muslim child comes into hospital with a leather pouch attached to his arm, or a patient protest when being shaved for an operation.

Institutional health care in Britain has also grown up to fit in with the traditional ways of British society, many of which are based on Christian practices; for example, we try to send patients home over Christmas, Christian chaplains make regular rounds of hospital wards, and Christian services are held on hospital premises.

When patients in hospital wish to make confession, to receive communion, or to baptize their babies, ward staff generally understand what to do, and, equally important, are immediately sympathetic to requests.

Non-Christian patients often find it more difficult to get help in fulfilling their religious duties merely because these duties are unfamiliar.

This increases their feelings of isolation and unhappiness.

Few British health workers, or other professionals in the 1 caring services, have up to now been given the opportunity to understand much about the beliefs and practices of Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam.

This may inhibit their ability to offer comfort to patients and their families.

It may also mean that when patients request special facilities, or refuse to do something for religious reasons, they are regarded with suspicion or irritation by health workers.