Healing Through and Through: Integrating Spiritual Care into the Treatment Plan for Sustainable Outcomes
Lavender Kelley, MDiv, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
When a leg is amputated due to an accident, medical science quickly responds with a solution: a prosthetic leg. This wonderful innovation can restore function. Yet, is the person truly healed? Significant issues of transitional loss, acclimation to a new identity, shifting community perceptions and relationships, and changes in modes and methods for meaning making remain well into the future. Those elements are deeply spiritual at their core and take extraordinary time and intentionality in order to attain comprehensive healing. The reality for most amputees is a long process of reclaiming a sense of self and identity that goes far beyond the functioning of the lost limb.
This presentation will briefly review research on the trend of medicine treating physical symptoms while overlooking the additional injury to the spiritual and emotional life of a person. Furthermore, research suggests that many illnesses such as heart disease actually stem from stress and diet that reflect a dysfunction in spiritual health. From such information, we will explore an emerging posture within medicine that treats the whole person inclusive of mind, body, and spirit. The following hypothesis will serve as the guide and undergirding for the didactic: A comprehensive approach to treating physical and emotional maladies that is inclusive of spiritual injury and distress produces more sustainable outcomes for patients. Utilizing such an approach can prevent relapses of illness, promote greater medical compliance, and support the overarching health of patients through increased resiliency.
To explore this hypothesis, we will examine the timeline of illness, the points at which spiritual injury occurs, medical responses that include treating the spiritual self, and factors that hamper healing. We will apply current research in these areas and examine the timeline for illness and the points at which spiritual harm occur. Practical approaches will be offered to identify spiritual injury during medical history gathering, screening, and assessment as well methods for integrating useful spiritual screening tools. From a more comprehensive understanding of our patients, we will then consider what resources and tools might be used to help meet the spiritual needs of the patient. Those resources include methods of meaning making, linking healthcare goals to underlying spiritual values, and use of ritual to help reinforce a trajectory of healing. We will give special attention to integrating these objectives in a multidisciplinary setting.
In the final 20 minutes, we will work with a specific case study and walk through it as a group to apply the tools that were presented. A previously prepared case study, facilitated group discussion, and active write-up of our process will be utilized. Through this method, we will see how inclusion of spiritual needs can ultimately lead to more sustainable outcomes for the patient and complement the marvels of modern medical science.
Participants will leave presentation with:
Goals for Participants:
This presentation/discussion is targeted toward chaplains and all healthcare professionals who want to integrate healing of spiritual injury and distress as well as others who may want to integrate such models and information into their practice or philosophy. It is designed to offer practical tools and methods in a clinical setting but can be applied in many broader or more specialized settings.
The presenter, Rev. Lavender Kelley M.Div., is a pediatric chaplain at a world class, urban, teaching hospital. This chaplain specializes in ICU, trauma, and psychiatric care settings and has a strong history of interdisciplinary collaboration and crisis work. She has also presented at local and national conferences on emerging models of theodicy, resiliency, and narrative frameworks.
When a leg is amputated due to an accident, medical science quickly responds with a solution: a prosthetic leg. This wonderful innovation can restore function. Yet, is the person truly healed? Significant issues of transitional loss, acclimation to a new identity, shifting community perceptions and relationships, and changes in modes and methods for meaning making remain well into the future. Those elements are deeply spiritual at their core and take extraordinary time and intentionality in order to attain comprehensive healing. The reality for most amputees is a long process of reclaiming a sense of self and identity that goes far beyond the functioning of the lost limb.
This presentation will briefly review research on the trend of medicine treating physical symptoms while overlooking the additional injury to the spiritual and emotional life of a person. Furthermore, research suggests that many illnesses such as heart disease actually stem from stress and diet that reflect a dysfunction in spiritual health. From such information, we will explore an emerging posture within medicine that treats the whole person inclusive of mind, body, and spirit. The following hypothesis will serve as the guide and undergirding for the didactic: A comprehensive approach to treating physical and emotional maladies that is inclusive of spiritual injury and distress produces more sustainable outcomes for patients. Utilizing such an approach can prevent relapses of illness, promote greater medical compliance, and support the overarching health of patients through increased resiliency.
To explore this hypothesis, we will examine the timeline of illness, the points at which spiritual injury occurs, medical responses that include treating the spiritual self, and factors that hamper healing. We will apply current research in these areas and examine the timeline for illness and the points at which spiritual harm occur. Practical approaches will be offered to identify spiritual injury during medical history gathering, screening, and assessment as well methods for integrating useful spiritual screening tools. From a more comprehensive understanding of our patients, we will then consider what resources and tools might be used to help meet the spiritual needs of the patient. Those resources include methods of meaning making, linking healthcare goals to underlying spiritual values, and use of ritual to help reinforce a trajectory of healing. We will give special attention to integrating these objectives in a multidisciplinary setting.
In the final 20 minutes, we will work with a specific case study and walk through it as a group to apply the tools that were presented. A previously prepared case study, facilitated group discussion, and active write-up of our process will be utilized. Through this method, we will see how inclusion of spiritual needs can ultimately lead to more sustainable outcomes for the patient and complement the marvels of modern medical science.
Participants will leave presentation with:
- PowerPoint presentation w/notes on topic
- Handouts on spiritual values, methods of meaning making, and sample rituals for non-religious patients
- Bibliography of sources
- Additional list of relevant research
Goals for Participants:
- Increase ability to identify spiritual injury and distress in patients through screening tools, narrative prompts, and other mechanisms.
- Increase awareness of resources and tools for addressing spiritual distress and injury and stronger notions of how to apply them.
- Gain a working knowledge of current research in this area
This presentation/discussion is targeted toward chaplains and all healthcare professionals who want to integrate healing of spiritual injury and distress as well as others who may want to integrate such models and information into their practice or philosophy. It is designed to offer practical tools and methods in a clinical setting but can be applied in many broader or more specialized settings.
The presenter, Rev. Lavender Kelley M.Div., is a pediatric chaplain at a world class, urban, teaching hospital. This chaplain specializes in ICU, trauma, and psychiatric care settings and has a strong history of interdisciplinary collaboration and crisis work. She has also presented at local and national conferences on emerging models of theodicy, resiliency, and narrative frameworks.