[Spiritual needs and palliative care: assessment of a new care package]

The approach taken in our palliative care document regarding spiritual needs is under three headings: 1) illness in the personal and sociocultural dimension 2) communication and self-esteem 3) spirituality: religions, philosophical or other beliefs, with twenty-eight items, including several sub-items. This approach has been used in sixty-four cases. In the first quatitative analysis, we determined which were the most utilized items, that is: the stages of bereavement, the patient's awareness of his/her illness, the observation of the means of communication he or she uses, and his/her mental state. In the second qualitative analysis, we considered the responses given for each item and sub-item. This enabled the enhancement of the first analysis, by highlighting other items ou subitems, such as beliefs, or messages and touch. From those two analysis, we sought to establish new re-groupings of items. Eleven themes have been highlighted, of which the three most important are: acceptance of the illness and self-image communication relationships with proxies On this basis, we propose to reformulate our approach to spiritual needs in palliative care.