Partners in Caring Highlights

Health & Healing
Chaplaincy Forms Research Collaboration with Columbia University's
Center for the Psychosocial Study of Health and Illness

Can the effects of spiritual care be quantified? How do healthcare chaplains affect the course of illness and recovery? Should doctors and nurses try to provide spiritual support for their patients? How do patients and their family members use religious beliefs and activities to cope with the stresses of illness, treatment, and caregiving? Despite the growing public and professional interest in the relationship between spirituality and health, questions like these have been paid scant attention by medical researchers.

That is beginning to change, however, thanks to the efforts of investigators like The Rev. Dr. Larry VandeCreek, the Chaplaincy's 's director of pastoral research, and Dr. Karolynn Siegel, professor of public health and director of The Center for the Psychosocial Study of Health and Illness at the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University. Drs. Siegel and VandeCreek recently announced the formation of a research collaboration between the two centers.

"Although chaplains feel confident that their ministry is valuable, the current resource-scarce healthcare environment demands more objective demonstrations of their contributions," Dr. VandeCreek said. "Healthcare authorities rightly ask for evidence concerning the utility of chaplains' activities, the uniqueness of their contributions, and a clear understanding of what kinds of pastoral interventions are helpful with specific types of patients in specific circumstances."

Dr. Siegel holds a doctorate in sociology and is a leading researcher in the area of coping with chronic and life-threatening illnesses as well as bereavement. Prior to moving to Columbia, she directed a psychosocial research unit at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and was a professor in the Departments of Psychiatry both there and at Cornell Medical College. Eileen Gorey, R.N., M.P.H., another experienced clinician with an interest in spiritual care research, has been hired part-time to assist Drs. Siegel and VandeCreek.

The team will focus on developing a research program that examines the role of religion and spirituality as a resource for promoting public health. The program will investigate the contributions of professional chaplains in healthcare and seeks to identify religious and spiritual interventions that are most effective in promoting spiritual and emotional well-being among patients and family members. The researchers also hope to determine what unique contributions religious institutions make in health promotion and disease prevention, and establish how religious beliefs influence patient and family decisions about medical treatment and end-of-life care.

The involvement with Columbia is one of several joint research initiatives underway at the Chaplaincy's . Dr. VandeCreek is collaborating with Dr. Stephen Paget, physician-in-chief of the Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology of the Hospital for Special Surgery. Drs. Paget and VandeCreek are involved in a study that examines styles of religious coping among more than 180 arthritis sufferers. Dr. VandeCreek said, "If we can determine what the functions of religious practice and spirituality tend to be among a given patient population, such as people dealing with chronic pain due to arthritis, we can learn how better to serve a particular population. We can know what the patients want, and we can learn a lot about the kinds of skills chaplains need in order to be helpful."

the Chaplaincy's is also forming a collaborative relationship with Duke University's Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health. The Center's director, Dr. Harold G. Koenig, is a geriatric psychiatrist and a well-known figure in the field of pastoral research; he is also the author of The Healing Power of Faith (Simon & Schuster, 1999). Dr. Koenig has collaborated extensively with The Rev. Dr. Andrew Weaver, currently director of psychological services at Hawaii State Hospital and director of clinical training at the University of Hawaii, who will become co-director of pastoral research at the Chaplaincy's in August. "I am very much an advocate of the chaplain's presence in hospitals and of integrating the chaplain into the healthcare team," Dr. Koenig said. "We want to do a major multiple-site research study that looks at how chaplaincy affects the use and cost of health services."

For further reading on religious coping, Dr. VandeCreek recommends: Pargament, Kenneth. The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice. New York: Guilford Press, 1997.

And for recent reviews of the literature on religious practice and health, see: Journal of Personality, volume 67, number 6, 1999. Health Education & Behavior, volume 25, number 6, 1998.