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Spirituality and Healing

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Title: Spirituality and Healing


1
Spirituality and Healing
  • John Mulder, MD
  • Vice President of Medical Services, Faith Hospice
  • Medical Director of Palliative Care Services
  • MetroHealth
  • Director, Grand Rapids Palliative Medicine
    Fellowship Program

2
Objectives
  • Define our spiritual nature
  • Understand the scientific basis for the role
    of spirituality in health and disease
  • Understand the interrelationship between the
    spiritual, physical, and emotional aspects of our
    being
  • Equip participants with techniques for
    dealing with spiritual issues with patients

3
Few men make themselves masters of the things
they write or speak. -- John Selden, 1564-1654
4
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not
know because they have never deceived us. -- Dr.
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
5
What is Spirituality?
Spirituality is one of those words which is sort
of like an old Barnum and Bailey circus tent it
covers so many various kinds of animals, events,
acts and episodes that its hard to pin down. --
Joseph Sittler, theologian/writer
6
What is Spirituality?
  • -- The non-physical part of our being --
  • The part that motivates us to look for
    meaning
  • Connects our experiences with sources of
    meaning
  • Provides capacity to see beyond and rise
    above momentary experiences to find meaning and
    purpose in life

7
What is Spirituality?
  • A vehicle for faith that provides a basis
    for prayer, meditation and worship
  • Gives us a reason to love, forgive and seek
    reconciliation
  • Values such as love, meaning, beauty, hope
    and truth guide our search for meaning in life
    and in its lifes experiences
  • Brings clarity to personal concepts such as
    personhood, life, death, grieving, compassion,
    and lifes purposes

8
What is Spirituality?
  • PHYSICAL BODY -- senses of sight, sound,
    hearing, taste, capacity for motion, experiencing
    pain and pleasure
  • MIND -- capacity for having thoughts,
    holding beliefs, experiencing emotions
  • SPIRIT or SOUL -- site of supreme values
    and ultimate realities perception and
    understanding of God, love, meaning, hope,
    beauty, and truth

9
What is Spirituality?
  • TWO DIMENSIONS
  • VERTICAL -- Our personal relationship with
    God, ultimate source of being model for
    understanding lifes experiences basis for
    coping with illnesses, pain, suffering, etc.
  • HORIZONTAL -- Our personal relationship
    with others basis for personal lifestyle or life
    story
  • The Human Moment

10
What is Spiritual Healing?
  • Spiritual healing is not a matter of God
    breaking the physical laws of nature.
  • Spiritual laws co-exist with physical laws
    interacting constantly.
  • Following spiritual laws directly affects
    the body and can influence disease and health
  • Spiritual healing is a discipline to be
    practiced - a life style, not an event to be
    prayed for

11
There is no cure for birth and death save to
enjoy the interval. -- George Santayana,
1863-1952
12
What is Health?
  • Fitness and lifestyle
  • Proper diet
  • Proper exercise
  • Proper sleep

13
What is Health?
  • Fitness and lifestyle
  • Fulfilling our calling

14
An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a
mans entire existence. -- Honore de Balzac
1799-1850
15
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference
between our talents and our expectations. --
Edward de Bono, 1933-
16
What is Health?
  • Fitness and lifestyle
  • Fulfilling our calling
  • Forgiveness Giving and receiving

17
Science without religion is lame religion
without science is blind. -- Albert Einstein,
1897-1955
18
Healthcare professionals have both an
opportunity and an obligation
to impact their patients spiritual as
well as physical health.
19
Physician reluctance to endorse healthy
spirituality
  • Most physicians not aware of data
  • Many doctors specifically instructed to keep
    religion out of medical practices - dont mix
    science and faith
  • The possibility of opening Pandoras Box
    unsettling for many physicians untrained to
    address spiritual beliefs, practices, and
    experiences

20
Why Faith Heals . . .
  • Social Support -- People who have strong
    religious commitment are more connected to each
    other
  • Ritual -- Rituals in and of themselves
    have health benefits they also give a sense of
    security
  • Appreciation of Beauty -- Nearly everyone
    revels in natures beauty the faithful are
    reminded to look up and enjoy the view

21
Why Faith Heals . . .
  • Worship -- Through song, dance, uplifted
    hands or prayer, worship bathes us in a variety
    of healing faith factors (ritual, social support,
    beauty)
  • Serenity -- In the midst of stress, forms
    of meditation create a relaxation response,
    reducing the damaging effects of that stress
  • Confession -- Faith can drive us to make
    good on our guilt confession and forgiveness
    allow us to learn from our mistakes and move on

22
Why Faith Heals . . .
  • Temperance -- Most faiths take a negative
    view of risk factors for illness and disease
    drunkenness, sexual immorality, smoking,
    overeating
  • Hope -- Those with deep faith believe that
    God has their best interests at heart regardless
    of their circumstances present worries pale in
    comparison to the wonder of Gods ultimate
    promises
  • Unity -- An opportunity to gather and
    communicate bring healing into faith-based
    environments accountability helps keep a focus
    on faith-based values

23
Why Faith Heals . . .
  • Meaning -- The presence of hope, social
    support, and unity gives meaning and purpose to
    life
  • Trust -- People of faith do what they are
    able with the strength, ingenuity and desire that
    God gives them, and trust Him for the results a
    positive, health-preserving sense of peace
    results
  • Love -- Gods love, and love reflected in
    behavior of friends and family, blunts the effect
    of physical and emotional trauma healing power
    of love sometimes seen best when its lost

24
Prayer does not change God, but it changes him
who prays. -- Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855
25
If God had designated an ideal place to bring
down men and womens emotional barriers, He could
have designed no better environment than the
doctors office or hospital.
26
Keys to Influence Spiritual Health
  • Influence requires professional competence
  • Influence requires character
  • Influence requires compassion

27
Physicians and nurses can be powerful spiritual
forces for healing by being there with their
patients, by being attentive, and by
demonstrating caring, and professional and
personal concern for patients.
28
Addressing Spiritual Self Care Needs
. . . you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your mind, and with all your strength. The
second is this, You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. There is no other commandment greater
than these. Mark 1230-31
29
Addressing Spiritual Self Care Needs
Love God completely Love others
compassionately Love yourself correctly
30
There are two ways of spreading light to be
the candle or the mirror that reflects it. --
Edith Wharton
31
How can health be evaluated?
  • Objective data
  • Independent observation (family, friends)
  • Self-evaluation (questionnaire)

32
A Popular Platform
  • Public media has turned an eye onto this issue,
    and the research findings
  • Time, McCalls, Family Circle, Prevention,
    Self, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times,
    Cooking Light, ABC World News Tonight, USA Today,
    The Today Show, Good Morning America, Gentlemans
    Quarterly, Omni, Readers Digest . . .

33
What the research shows . . .
  • 95 of Americans express belief in God
  • Nearly 3 in 4 claim that they base their
    approach to life on their religious beliefs
  • 63 of patients desire to have their doctor
    address religious faith - only 10 of physicians
    do so
  • Levels of religious practice are
    significantly related to health status,
    regardless of age, even after controlling for
    education, social class, and social membership

34
What the research shows . . .
  • Less than 2/3 family physicians believe that
    God exists
  • Less than 25 report believing in a personal
    God, believing in an afterlife, or having a close
    relationship with God
  • More than 1/4 were atheists or agnostics
  • Only 5 of doctors report that religious and
    spiritual issues were regularly addressed in
    their training
  • As of April, 1996, 20 medical schools
    include a course on addressing faith issues with
    patients

35
Application in Clinical Settings
  • HYPERTENSION
  • Persons who both attended church frequently
    and rated their religion as very important had
    lower diastolic blood pressures
  • Findings even more impressive in smokers who
    rated religion as important and attended church
    at least once weekly

36
Application in Clinical Settings
  • ARTERIOSCLEROTIC HEART DISEASE
  • Risk of dying from heart disease was much
    less for men who attended church at least once a
    week risk for frequent church attenders was only
    60 of the risk for men who attended infrequently
  • At least 6 community-based studies have
    shown that the religiously committed person,
    particularly the church attender, has a greater
    chance of living longer than do persons lacking a
    religious commitment

37
Application in Clinical Settings
  • DRUG/ALCOHOL ABUSE
  • 20 studies have examined relationship
    between religion and drug use
  • Drug abuse is related to the absence of
    religious commitment in a persons life
  • In 10/11 studies, religious commitment
    protected against alcohol abuse

38
Application in Clinical Settings
  • SUICIDE
  • Persons who did not attend church were 4 x
    more likely to commit suicide than were frequent
    church attenders
  • DELIQUENCY
  • 12/13 studies found that religious
    commitment - particularly church attendance -
    played a protective role against delinquency

39
Application in Clinical Settings
  • CORONARY CARE OUTCOMES
  • Intercessory prayer for CCU patients, double
    blind
  • Daily prayer for rapid recovery,
    prevention of complications and death other
    areas they believed to be beneficial
  • RESULTS
  • Fewer cases of CHF, fewer cardiopulmonary
    arrests, fewer cases needing intubation or
    ventilation, fewer cases of pneumonia in the
    group that was consistently prayed for

40
A Medieval Perspective . . .
For when the wretched man findyng all helpe of
man not able to uphold him from perishing, being
striken with the mightie hande of God, feleth him
selfe unable to stande, no soundes in his bodye,
no strength in his limmes, no helpe of nature to
resist the violence of that disease that Gods
displeasure hath laid upon him, seeth no signe of
Gods grace in his soule, but the deep woundes
that Gods anger hath left in his conscience,
perceiveth no token to argue him thelect of God
and partaker of the death of his Saviour,
hearyng pronounced that the soule which sinneth
shall die, knowyng him selfe to have sinned, and
felying him selfe dying alas what helpe
remaineth in this extremitie? -- Anne Lock, 1560
41
Introductory interview questions
  • Is religion or spirituality important to
    you?
  • Do your religious or spiritual beliefs
    influence the way you look at your medical
    problems and the way you think about your health?
  • Would you like me to address your religious
    or spiritual beliefs and practices with you?

42
Introductory interview questions
  • Do you attend religious services? (If
    yes, how often do you attend? Which church?)
  • Do you pray? (If yes, how frequently?)
  • How important is religion to you? (If
    very or somewhat, go to next question?)
  • Is your relationship with God more formal or
    personal?

43
Faith Stories
  • PRINCIPLES
  • They should fit as a natural part of
    conversation
  • They should take no more than 2 minutes
  • They should be about God/Bible/relationship
    to God, not about church or a book
  • They should provide a glimpse of what its
    like to be Gods child

44
Faith Stories
  • THEY SHOULD AVOID
  • Religious jargon
  • Pushing for a decision
  • Becoming a sermon
  • Identifying you as a member of a specific
    religious group or denomination
  • Identifying faith as a reason for not doing
    something
  • Attempts to convict
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