The impact of a spiritual legacy intervention in patients with brain cancers and other neurologic illnesses and their support persons

Abstract

A chaplain-led spiritual life review is a feasible intervention for patients with neurodegenerative disease and results in beneficial effects on patients and SPs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hearing and Heeding the Voices of those With Advanced Illnesses

“…29,30 (The instruments and their selection have been more thoroughly described in previous publications.) [23][24][25] Following the receipt of completed baseline questionnaires from each dyad, an interview with the primary participant and a chaplain was arranged. The interview was based on a semistructured guide developed by chaplains and other research team members.…”

“…The results of phase 1 with the first thirty-two patients have been previously published. [23][24][25] The purpose of this article is to describe the results of the additional ninety-eight patients accrued after protocol modifications (phase 2) together with those from phase 1. Specifically, we focus on post-intervention completers from both phases combined.…”

Can Outcome Research Respect the Integrity of Chaplaincy? A Review of Outcome Studies

“…Several studies examined a predefined structured intervention, in which it was clear what the chaplain was going to do, despite strong resistance within the field to standardizing interventions. Interestingly, however, the studied interventions;Spiritual AIM (Kestenbaum et al, 2017), Hear My Voice (Piderman et al, 2017) and the Caregiver Outlook (Steinhauser et al, 2016)-offered a framework or semistructured protocol while also keeping the content of conversation highly individualized, since the interventions are intended to enable clients to relate personal stories. We argued that respecting the integrity of chaplaincy requires explicating how the standardized intervention is related to chaplaincy practice more generally.…”

“…Three studies find a high satisfaction with chaplain care (Purvis, Crowe, Wright, & Teague, 2018;Vandecreek, 2004;Wall et al, 2007). Four studies find a positive relationship between chaplaincy care and better patient quality of life (Balboni et al, 2007(Balboni et al, , 2010Piderman et al, 2017;Rummans et al, 2006) and four studies show an increase in spiritual well-being (Kestenbaum et al, 2017;Piderman et al, 2017;Rabow et al, 2004;Sun et al, 2016). Three studies document a decrease in anxiety by patients visited by a chaplain (Berning et al, 2016;Iler et al, 2001;Rabow et al, 2004).…”

“…Three studies document a decrease in anxiety by patients visited by a chaplain (Berning et al, 2016;Iler et al, 2001;Rabow et al, 2004). Two studies find an increase in positive religious coping (Bay, Beckman, Trippi, Gunderman, & Terry, 2008;Piderman et al, 2017). One study finds a decrease in medical costs at the end of life (Balboni et al, 2011); one study a shorter length of stay (Iler et al, 2001); one study better mental well-being (Kevern & Hill, 2015); and one study a decrease in dyspnea, primary and urgent care visits, and an increase in sleep quality (Rabow et al, 2004).…”