Competencies for quality spiritual care in palliative care in Latin America: from the Spirituality Commission of the Latin American Association for Palliative Care.

Spiritual care is an essential part of quality palliative care. However, the literature regarding spiritual care competencies in Latin America is limited. Herein we propose the basic quality standards for spiritual care in palliative care according to best professional practices and provide a common vocabulary and required competencies for quality clinical spiritual care. Both elements, quality standards and a common vocabulary, are part of an essential step implementing continuous educational initiatives among interdisciplinary palliative care teams in Latin America. Members of the Spirituality Commission of the Latin American Association for Palliative Care and three members of independent professional palliative care organizations identified and reviewed our proposed spiritual care competencies and created a consensus document describing the competencies for general spiritual care. In the context of palliative care in Latin America, general spiritual care is provided by members of interdisciplinary teams. We proposed six competencies for high-quality general spiritual care and their observable behaviors that every member of an interdisciplinary palliative care team should have to provide quality clinical spiritual care in their daily practice: (I) personal, spiritual, and professional development; (II) ethics of spiritual care; (III) assessment of spiritual needs and spiritual care interventions; (IV) empathic and compassionate communication; (V) supportive and collaborative relationships among the interdisciplinary team; and (VI) inclusivity and diversity.

Baja autoestima, restricción alimentaria y variables psicopatológicas en anorexia y bulimia nerviosa. Un estudio de casos y controles / Low self-steem, restricting eating behaviour and psychopatological variables in anorexia and bulimia nervosa. A study of cases and controls

El objetivo del presente estudio es el examinar las relaciones existentes entre la baja autoestima, la conducta alimentaria restrictiva y otras variables clínicas y/o psicopatológicas en pacientes con trastornos de la conducta alimentaria (TCA), al ser comparados con controles estudiantes (GC). 50 pacientes con TCA (24 Anorexicos y 26 Bulímicos), según criterios DSM-IV, que acudieron a tratamiento al Servicio de Psiquiatría del Hospital de Bellvitge, participaron en el presente estudio. El grupo de control (GC) estaba compuesto por 38 estudiantes universitarios, divididos post-hoc en dos subgrupos en base a la presencia (RA, N= 18) o ausencia (NRA, N= 20) de restricción alimentaria. Todos los sujetos eran del sexo femenino.Para la evaluación fueron utilizados los siguientes instrumentos: Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), Eating Attitudes Test (EAT 40), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) y Restraint Scale (RS). Encontramos que tanto los pacientes con TCA como el subgrupo RA se diferenciaban del NRA en restricción alimentaria, realización de dietas e insatisfacción corporal (p<0,0001), si bien, la baja autoestima (p<0,0001) y la psicopatología alimentaria (p<0,0001) fueron característica exclusiva en TCA. Así mismo, fue encontrada una correlación positiva significativa entre restricción alimentaria y baja autoestima (r=0,52, p<0,0001). En conclusión, la psicopatología alimentarla y la baja autoestima serán factores característicos en TCA, mientras que la realización de dietas y/o insatisfacción corporal, serán comunes asi-mismo en población general que realiza asiduamente restricción alimentaria (RA) (AU)