Toward the Development of Online Spiritual Care Communities: A Large-Scale Survey of Spiritual Care Stakeholders to Establish Initial Design Directions, Acceptability, and Feasibility

Abstract

Spiritual care in the U.S. remains critically underprovided, despite increasing demand and a need for more whole person-centered care in healthcare. Telechaplaincy has emerged as one response, and recent CSCW work has begun to explore spiritual support online, yet there is limited prior research on how to practically expand spiritual care into online community spaces. However, recent work has introduced prospective Online Spiritual Care Communities (OSCCs) and argued for their potential to reach millions of users in need if designed and built conscientiously. In this study, we address open questions concerning key trade-offs in OSCC implementation related to: anonymity, visibility, affiliation, (a)synchronous interaction, and moderation. We conducted a large national survey ( n = 1010) to explore the acceptability and feasibility of OSCCs, as well as to investigate initial design directions suggested by two stakeholder groups: professional spiritual care providers and lay users. Participants strongly preferred: (1) anonymous–public–asynchronous configurations, (2) institutional affiliation, and (3) professional moderation. This study provides the first large-scale empirical validation of the acceptability of OSCCs by demonstrating strong, converging support from both groups. We contribute new insights into online spiritual care needs and present user- and provider-aligned recommendations for building trustworthy care platforms.