Integration of Spirituality in Palliative Care in the Gaza Strip
Hima Bindu Thota, MD, Rutgers NJMS Department of Surgery, Newark, NJ
In the inaugural palliative care diploma program developed for a multi-disciplinary medical team in Gaza, we have studied spirituality as an essential component of palliative care within the Gaza context. We explored what spirituality looks like here in Gaza, how this is expressed in a Muslim context, how the values of this society offer meaning in the face of the ongoing siege and additional losses, how healthcare teams can integrate spirituality and spiritual pain as part of a holistic assessment, and how spiritual care can be an integral part of multidisciplinary palliative health interventions.
We had our last class with the students in Gaza on August 16, 2023, unbeknownst to us what would transpire on October 7, 2023. My hope is by the time of the CMR conference, the war will be over, and I will also be able to report on what the medical team was able to apply in real-time. My paper will be a reflection on the integration of spirituality in times of long-suffering and terminal illness, which was primarily the context in which we were teaching these principles, but also a reflection on the integration of spirituality in times of trauma and war.
We had our last class with the students in Gaza on August 16, 2023, unbeknownst to us what would transpire on October 7, 2023. My hope is by the time of the CMR conference, the war will be over, and I will also be able to report on what the medical team was able to apply in real-time. My paper will be a reflection on the integration of spirituality in times of long-suffering and terminal illness, which was primarily the context in which we were teaching these principles, but also a reflection on the integration of spirituality in times of trauma and war.