What Is The Ideal Intervention Project, Anyway?

The Ideal Intervention Project was conceived by Henry G. Heffernan SJ, an NIH staff chaplain, who adapted the Ideal Intervention Paper for CPE students from a cognitive therapy template to consolidate learnings and to allow replication. Since 2006 a growing number of students across the ACPE regions have completed Ideal Intervention Papers. These, and lately more concise Ideal Intervention Forms for students and for experienced practitioners, are forwarded to Heffernan for editing and inclusion in an "anonymized" knowledge base. Editors are to transform these IIPs and IIFs into Potential Best Practices. Other practitioners will then access the knowledge base by central issue identifier to inform their own interventions. If recipients of that care rate it as effective, the designation Tentative Best Practice will be applied and the cycle repeated by other chaplains, culminating in the designation Spiritual Care Best Practice. For forms and protocols, contact the Editor at mariejohn50@att.net and Heffernan at hheffernan@gonzaga.org for his observations on the initial drafts of Potential Best Practices.

 

Where Science and Spirit Meet

Must the clinician choose between a practice that is strictly objective and data based and one that is purely subjective and experience based? Not necessarily. Psychologist Stanley B. Messer describes an approach that involves publishing systematic case studies online that include a theoretical formulation, empirically supported treatments, empirically supported therapy relationships, clinicians’ accumulated practical experience, and their clinical judgment about the case at hand. This “best of both worlds” philosophy undergirds the IIP, but Messer’s complex case outline is best suited for pastoral counselors and chaplains who have opportunity for longer term care. (See Stanley B. Messer, "Evidence-Based Practice: Beyond Empirically Supported Treatments," Professional Psychology - Research & Practice 35[6]: 580-588.)

 

Introducing the Project Team and Consultants

Our Project Team consists of Henry G. Heffernan SJ, a Staff Chaplain at NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, creator of the Ideal Intervention Paper, knowledge base manager and literature resource person. Yoke-Lye Lim Kwong pioneered the Ideal Intervention Paper and is a workshop co-presenter, an ACPE Supervisor, and Director of Spiritual Care at Howard Regional Hospital in Kokomo, Indiana. John J. Gleason, newsletter editor and workshop co-presenter, is an ACPE Supervisor Emeritus, and resides in Greenwood, Indiana. Helpful consultation has been provided by Bart Clare, John Ehman, George Handzo, Steven Ivy, Martha Jacobs, Allie Kilpatrick-Hill, Martin Montonye, Paul Steinke, John Teer, James Travis, and CPE students.

 

Don’t Forget, Please

Supervisors, please be sure to remind your students to forward their IIPs or IIFs to Fr. Heffernan at hheffernan@gonzaga.org for processing and likely inclusion in the knowledge base, after reviewing them with you in individual supervision. Practitioners, please forward your IIFs in the same manner.