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Talking
about Spirituality & Health
News • Questions & Answers • Tools
Overview: According
to the American Academy of Family Physicians, “spirituality
is the way you find meaning, hope, comfort and inner peace in your
life. Many people find spirituality through religion. Some find it
through music, art or a connection with nature. Others find it in
their values and principles.”
 Why is a medical organization
like the Academy defining spirituality? What does spirituality
have to do with health and health disparities?
And should health care providers address the spiritual concerns
of their patients?
Recent medical studies indicate that people who
describe themselves as spiritual exhibit fewer self-destructive behaviors
(suicide,
smoking, and drug and alcohol abuse, for example), less stress,
and a greater
total life satisfaction. Spirituality has been shown to reduce
depression, improve blood pressure, and boost the immune system.
More information
about the links between spirituality and health will emerge over
time.
News
Latest research and opinion on spirituality
and health
- New! Differences in hospice use between black and white
patients
The hospice use rate doubled for white patients and increased
almost 4-fold for black patients from 1992 to 2000. Throughout the
1990s, length of hospice survival did not significantly differ between
black and white hospice patients.
 Themes
in Native American Nursing Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2001
Article explores the themes of Native American nursing and deeper
meanings
in these themes, including caring, traditions, respect,
connection, holism, trust, and spirituality. Knowledge
of the importance of these dimensions can also be helpful to all health
care providers in caring for Native American patients and families.- Hmong
End of Life information Guidelines and information about pain management,
palliative care and end of life considerations, in English and Hmong,
from Hospice Minnesota.
For more information, contact Barbara
Greene, Multicultural Consultant,
Hospice Minnesota.
- This
Is a Spiritual Experience: Perspectives of Latter-Day Saint
Families Living With a Child With Disabilities, Qualitative Health
Research 2003; 13; 57. Article addresses the importance of spirituality
and religion for families when they have a child with disabilities,
and describes the finding
of meaning and transcendence through religion and spiritual belief.
Authors point out significant findings of previous research relating
to the coping resource of religious belief -- such as framing the chronic
illness and the resulting hardship in a positive way and the defining
of the illness or condition within a person's religious philosophy.
Parents reported that over time they acquired insights beyond
others who were either not of their faith or who had not had the experience
of raising a child with disabilities.
Thanks to Hennepin County for assistance in compiling news items. Contact Lindsey
Van Klei to receive a daily email digest of research headlines.
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Spirituality:
Questions & Answers
Tips on providing equitable treatment
for people of all beliefs
Q. What is
the difference between spirituality and religion?
A. Although the terms
are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings. Religion
is a specific set of organized beliefs and practices,
usually shared by a group. Spirituality is more individual, and has
to do with a sense of peace, purpose, and connection to others, and
beliefs about the meaning of life. People may consider themselves
both spiritual and religious; spiritual, but not religious; religious,
but
not spiritual; or neither religious nor spiritual.
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Q. How can talking about spiritual
or religious beliefs help a patient?
 A. No one really knows for sure;
much more research will be needed before the relationship between the
body and the mind—and some would add,
the spirit—is understood. But the health of any one of these elements
seems to affect the health of the others. For example, one study showed
that religiously oriented patients were three times more likely to survive
open-heart surgery than those who had no religious ties. At the very
least, serious illnesses may challenge a patient's beliefs or religious
values, resulting in high levels of spiritual or psychological distress.
Talking about this distress with a caring health care provider or with
a spiritual counselor who is familiar with the illness and treatment
may help the patient feel better, even if they are not healed.
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Q. Is it against the
law to ask about a patient’s
religious or spiritual beliefs?
A. If you are treating a patient, it is
important to know how their spiritual or religious beliefs may be affecting
their feelings about their illness
and treatment. A patient’s spiritual beliefs may affect their health
care decisions and their ability to follow treatment recommendations.
While it is against the law to discriminate against a patient on the
basis of religious orientation, no law prohibits providers from asking
whether a patient has religious or spiritual concerns that they would
like to discuss.
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Got a question? Share it on the Exchange members' discussion
forum.
Tools:
Key publications, websites and organizations
on spirituality and health
National resources
Spirituality
and Health International: Peer reviewed, non-denominational
quarterly journal explores spirituality as it affects those “who
work in healing and caring ways.”
Handbook
of Religion and Health: Koenig, H, et al. Discusses research
on the relationship between religion and a variety of mental and physical
health outcomes, and reviews research
on the impact of religious affiliation, belief, and practice on the use
of health services health. 2001, Available through Oxford University
Press or on Amazon.com.
National Center
for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Consumer info clearinghouse
run by National Institutes of Health. Staff researches questions in
English or Spanish, using government databases
of scientific and medical literature and sends the results to you.
Includes a link to a live online chat with a health information specialist.
Minnesota connections
Courses
from the University of Minnesota’s Center for Spirituality
and Healing touch on a variety of health topics such as complementary
healing practices;
different health care systems: Indigenous North American, Vedic, Traditional
Chinese, biomedicine; and how personal cultural experience affects one's view
of health, illness, and healing and one's professional practice. View the entire
course roster at the link above.
Hospice Minnesota Multicultural Initiative:
Hospice Minnesota is the "first
call" resource center for information
about care for people who are dying and their families. The organization’s
multicultural initiative connects with audiences that have traditionally
not made use of hospice services.
Center for Spirituality and Healing, University of Minnesota: Research
and training center that offers education, outreach and research in complementary,
alternative and culturally based healing practices,
integrating complementary and conventional health care.
Pathways: A volunteer-run health crisis resource center with programs
designed to support a creative healing response to life-threatening illness.
Taking Charge
of Your Health: Consumer information on integrating complementary
and conventional health care, navigating the health care system and
creating a healthy lifestyle.
Includes personal stories of people who successfully used complementary
therapies. Sponsored by the University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality
and Healing.
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