Piret Paal, Reinhard Grabenweger, Sarah Bublitz, Elisabeth Bumes, Benno Littger, Joni Haikonen, Marie-José Gijsberts, David J Oliver, Simone Veronese, Alexander Kowski, Megan Best
{"title":"European Association for Palliative Care White Paper on spiritual care for people with neuro-oncological and neurodegenerative conditions: Integrative framework for practice, education, and research.","authors":"Piret Paal, Reinhard Grabenweger, Sarah Bublitz, Elisabeth Bumes, Benno Littger, Joni Haikonen, Marie-José Gijsberts, David J Oliver, Simone Veronese, Alexander Kowski, Megan Best","doi":"10.1017/S1478951526102302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478951526102302","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>This White Paper by the European Association for Palliative Care addresses the imperative to integrate spiritual care into the support of individuals living with neuro-oncological and neurodegenerative conditions. These diseases present complex biomedical, social, psychological, and existential challenges that demand a whole-person approach to care. Various initiatives have progressed the understanding of spirituality as a dimension of well-being, yet the systemic delivery of spiritual care remains inconsistent and inequitable.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study adopts a narrative umbrella review approach. We provide a synthesized framework highlighting current knowledge and models of care, educational needs, and future priorities for research, while advocating for the formal integration of spiritual care into all stages of illness.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Our exploration highlights the importance of early integration of dynamic and multidimensional spiritual care for people with neuro-oncological or neurodegenerative diseases. The implementation of spiritual care in this context should address the unique challenges that arise with these diseases, such as changes in spiritual needs and in the ability to communicate spiritual needs across disease progression. Spiritual care should be carried out by the whole care team, offering regular spiritual screenings and referring care to specialists when needed, and it should be offered across all stages of care. Spiritual care should be culturally safe, offering multilingual access, and multi-faith chaplaincy services.</p><p><strong>Significance of results: </strong>Spiritual care is not a luxury or an optional extra; it is a fundamental aspect of palliative care. There is a need to implement spiritual care across all stages of care, taking into consideration the patient's evolving needs. Sufficient time should be allocated to spiritual care education for social and healthcare professionals. More research is needed to develop validated screening tools and effective interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":47898,"journal":{"name":"Palliative & Supportive Care","volume":"24 ","pages":"e117"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147724324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Palliative care as a shared language: Reflections from an ELNEC seminar in Salzburg.","authors":"Júlia Drummond de Camargo","doi":"10.1017/S1478951526102405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478951526102405","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47898,"journal":{"name":"Palliative & Supportive Care","volume":"24 ","pages":"e115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147724356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The ethics of staying: Medicine at the limits of intervention.","authors":"João Carlos Geber-Júnior","doi":"10.1017/S1478951526102387","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478951526102387","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47898,"journal":{"name":"Palliative & Supportive Care","volume":"24 ","pages":"e116"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147724273","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Possible autonomy: Finitude, vulnerability, and the ethical duty of listening.","authors":"João Carlos Geber-Júnior","doi":"10.1017/S1478951526102375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478951526102375","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47898,"journal":{"name":"Palliative & Supportive Care","volume":"24 ","pages":"e111"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147724320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Júlia Drummond de Camargo, Ivy de Carvalho Ramalho de Oliveira, João Carlos Geber-Júnior
{"title":"Relational-ethical transformational leadership in palliative care nursing: A conceptual perspective.","authors":"Júlia Drummond de Camargo, Ivy de Carvalho Ramalho de Oliveira, João Carlos Geber-Júnior","doi":"10.1017/S1478951526102363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478951526102363","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47898,"journal":{"name":"Palliative & Supportive Care","volume":"24 ","pages":"e114"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147724345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Capacity debt in palliative care: A case report illustrating longitudinal exhaustion following early engagement.","authors":"Richa Randhawa","doi":"10.1017/S1478951526102272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1478951526102272","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>Early engagement in palliative and supportive care is widely promoted as a marker of insight, acceptance, and readiness for shared decision-making. Clinicians, however, frequently observe a paradoxical longitudinal pattern in which patients who initially demonstrate high emotional, cognitive, and decisional engagement later become withdrawn or fatigued despite preserved insight. This case report illustrates such a pattern and interprets it using the concept of capacity debt.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A longitudinal case description is presented, integrating clinical observation with interpretive analysis informed by literature on patient capacity, emotional labor, cumulative complexity, and serious illness communication.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The patient demonstrated high early engagement in goals-of-care discussions, advance care planning, and emotionally demanding conversations. Over time, she developed marked conversational fatigue and withdrawal without evidence of depression, demoralization, denial, or cognitive impairment. Disengagement appeared temporally related to cumulative engagement demands rather than disease progression alone.</p><p><strong>Significance of results: </strong>This case illustrates how early intensive engagement may contribute to later disengagement through cumulative depletion of patient capacity. Interpreting this pattern as capacity debt provides a non-pathologizing and ethically grounded explanation, highlighting pacing as a core clinical skill in palliative care.</p>","PeriodicalId":47898,"journal":{"name":"Palliative & Supportive Care","volume":"24 ","pages":"e109"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147692816","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}