Spiritual, psychological, and social dimensions of pastoral care with patients and families in the home health care context

This article is a report on a research project designed to investigate the nature, function and place of pastoral care in home health care. The research was designed to be hypothesis-generating rather than hypothesis-testing, and the hypotheses regarding pastoral care which were generated through this research are its focus. The spiritual, psychological, and social dimensions of the hypotheses are discussed throughout the article. There are four areas of concentration: the nature of home care; the nature of pastoral care with the chronically ill elderly; the home context and pastoral care; and the functioning of belief systems.