Radical Friendship: How the Church Can Participate in Palliative Care
Sarabeth Perry, Student, Duke University
There is a crisis in the loss of personhood for patients in America’s healthcare system. It is especially prevalent for patients living with multiple chronic diseases who are not being treated in continued care facilities or nursing homes, which make attending to all aspects of a patient's’ well-being more convenient.
In this paper, I explore the Christian understanding of flourishing through 1 Corinthians 12:27, 1 Corinthians 1:26, and Ingold’s discussion of a meshwork society. These concepts clearly call for an integrated approach to health, and for the Body of Christ to take mutual responsibility for the well-being of its members. Palliative care is a philosophy of care that aims to improves health care quality in three domains: the relief of physical and emotional suffering; improvement and strengthening of the process of patient-physician communication and decision-making; and assurance of coordinated continuity of care across multiple healthcare settings. While inpatient palliative care programs are relatively common, there is a gap in care for chronic care patients who are not in the hospital or living within a nursing home or continued care facility. The similarities between a Christian understanding of flourishing, and the ideal implementation of palliative care call for the church to press for palliative care, as well as to help support members of the Body of Christ where there are gaps in their care.
Churches have an expansive enough reach within communities to be able to help supplement the members’ healthcare in the absence of standardized and comprehensive outpatient palliative care programs. I discuss Swinton’s concept of radical friendship as well as Hauerwas’ discussion of Christian friendship as ways to theologically approach helping care for individuals who need supplementation to their care and are not receiving it from traditional models of care. I also consider the use of Support Teams, highly structured networks of support for patients organized within churches, as a potential method to approach supporting members’ care in a practical way.
In helping to support its members’ health, churches will strengthen its members’ meshworks. In doing so, churches will be responding to their call to be mutually responsible for the Body of Christ’s flourishing.
There is a crisis in the loss of personhood for patients in America’s healthcare system. It is especially prevalent for patients living with multiple chronic diseases who are not being treated in continued care facilities or nursing homes, which make attending to all aspects of a patient's’ well-being more convenient.
In this paper, I explore the Christian understanding of flourishing through 1 Corinthians 12:27, 1 Corinthians 1:26, and Ingold’s discussion of a meshwork society. These concepts clearly call for an integrated approach to health, and for the Body of Christ to take mutual responsibility for the well-being of its members. Palliative care is a philosophy of care that aims to improves health care quality in three domains: the relief of physical and emotional suffering; improvement and strengthening of the process of patient-physician communication and decision-making; and assurance of coordinated continuity of care across multiple healthcare settings. While inpatient palliative care programs are relatively common, there is a gap in care for chronic care patients who are not in the hospital or living within a nursing home or continued care facility. The similarities between a Christian understanding of flourishing, and the ideal implementation of palliative care call for the church to press for palliative care, as well as to help support members of the Body of Christ where there are gaps in their care.
Churches have an expansive enough reach within communities to be able to help supplement the members’ healthcare in the absence of standardized and comprehensive outpatient palliative care programs. I discuss Swinton’s concept of radical friendship as well as Hauerwas’ discussion of Christian friendship as ways to theologically approach helping care for individuals who need supplementation to their care and are not receiving it from traditional models of care. I also consider the use of Support Teams, highly structured networks of support for patients organized within churches, as a potential method to approach supporting members’ care in a practical way.
In helping to support its members’ health, churches will strengthen its members’ meshworks. In doing so, churches will be responding to their call to be mutually responsible for the Body of Christ’s flourishing.