Spirituality: everyone has it, but what is it?

Spirituality has been the subject of discussion over many years, yet understanding its nature, and usefulness during illness, can be elusive. Nurses and other health-care practitioners can often be in the position to help patients discuss spiritual matters because of their direct contact on a frequent basis, but might not feel confident to do so because the subject can appear to be overly complex. This paper summarizes some of the essential elements of spirituality as synthesized from literature that refers to it. The literature draws attention to spirit as the core of a person's being, and the notion that spirituality comprises multiple dimensions that exist internally or become externally manifest through behaviours. The presence and use of spirituality can lead to such outcomes as peace of mind, self-fulfilment and alleviation of suffering. Underpinning all spirituality is the concept of transcendence where a person can be ‘lifted up’ above the challenges of illness

Methods and Instruments for the Estimation of Production Changes in Economic Evaluations

This chapter focuses on the indirect costs of paid work that result from mental illness. It provides an overview of monetary valuation methods and approaches to measure and value production gains and losses. The methods are applied to mental illness, although they have also been applied to other diseases. As mental health and mental health care can have different effects on production, the chapter starts by explaining how to classify the consequences of mental illness for the production of firms. It follows with the definitions of different types of production. This chapter subsequently presents and discusses three major approaches to value production. It pays attention to the human capital approach, the friction costs approach, and the multiplier approach. The chapter ends with a description of survey questions and instruments to measure and value production changes in economic evaluations