HealthCare Chaplaincy Awards $1.5 Million in
Six Project Grants to Advance the Field of Chaplaincy Research in Palliative Care

New York, July 23, 2012 – HealthCare Chaplaincy, a national leader in advancing the role of chaplaincy care within palliative care, today announces the six recipients of research grants to identify and explore hypotheses about chaplains’ contributions to palliative care.

These projects will in addition begin to build a community of researchers, including professional chaplains, to grow the field of research on spiritual care in palliative care.

The John Templeton Foundation has funded these grants, which are the largest in size and scope for professional chaplaincy.

72 proposals were submitted from institutions throughout North America, demonstrating significant interest in furthering professional health care chaplaincy as an evidence-based clinical field.

The six grant recipients are:

1. Dana Farber Cancer Institute (Boston) for “Hospital Chaplaincy and Medical Outcomes at the End of Life.” Project director is Tracy Balboni, M.D. Project chaplain is Angelika Zollfrank, BCC.
   
   
2. University of California, San Francisco for “Spiritual Assessment and Intervention Model (AIM) in Outpatient Palliative Care for Patients with Advanced Cancer.” Project director is Laura Dunn, M.D. Project chaplain is Allison Kestenbaum, BCC.
   
   
3. Children’s Mercy Hospital (Kansas City) for “Understanding Pediatric Chaplaincy in Crisis Situations.” Project director is John Lantos, M.D. Project chaplain is Dane Sommer, BCC.
   
   
4. Advocate Charitable Foundation & Advocate Health Care (Chicago) for “’What do I do’ – Developing a Taxonomy of Chaplaincy Activities and Interventions for Spiritual Care in ICU Palliative Care.” Project director is Kevin Massey, BCC. Co-principal investigator is William Summerfelt, Ph.D.
   
   
5. Emory University (Atlanta) for “Impact of Hospital-Based Chaplain Support on Decision-Making During Serious Illness in a Diverse Urban Palliative Care Population.” Project director is Tammie Quest, M.D. Project chaplain is George Grant, ACPE Supervisor.
   
   
6. Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC) for “Caregiver Outlook: An Evidence-Based Intervention for the Chaplain Toolkit.” Project director is Karen Steinhauser, Ph.D. Project chaplain is Annette Olsen, BCC.

The proposal review committee of international experts agreed that the proposals for these six projects have met the highest standards of scientific inquiry and relevancy to the goal of building the field of professional chaplaincy research.

These grants are made possible through the vision and generosity of the John Templeton Foundation, a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the big questions of human purpose and ultimate reality.  For this important initiative, the John Templeton Foundation chose to partner with HealthCare Chaplaincy — a national leader in the research, education and practice of spiritual care and palliative care. Palliative care is the medical specialty that relieves suffering for people with serious illnesses, improves quality of life, and matches the treatment plan to the patient’s wishes and values.  

Leading the overall research effort are co-principal investigators Linda Emanuel, M.D., Ph.D., HealthCare Chaplaincy’s senior vice president for research and education, as well as director of the Buehler Center for Aging at Northwestern University, and the Rev. George Handzo, BCC, HealthCare Chaplaincy’s senior consultant on chaplaincy care. This project builds on decades of work that Dr. Emanuel has led in palliative care training and quality and cost issues around end of life care. The Rev. Handzo has been with HealthCare Chaplaincy for nearly 35 years as a professional chaplain and national leader in chaplaincy care.  

Project progress reports will post periodically at www.healthcarechaplaincy.org.

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