No Mickey Mouse at Our Summit '09 Workshop!

Mickey Mouse was a no-show at our project's workshop at DisneyWorld during Summit '09! There was nothing mickey mouse about the way 86 participants interacted with co-presenter Yoke Lye Lim Kwong and this Editor. A number of them completed Ideal Intervention Forms based on their own experience and insights, to be forwarded to Fr. Henry Heffernan SJ at hheffernan@gonzaga.org for processing into the knowledge base that other spiritual care clinicians, clergy, students and educators will access for insights into their own similar situations.

Note: Updated background papers on the knowledge base of professions, on reflective practice, and on the Ideal Intervention Project itself are now available from Heffernan at the above e-mail address.

Is The Handwriting On The Wall?

In a report commissioned by the National Health Service (UK), "The Potential for Efficacy of Healthcare Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care Provision in the NHS (UK)" [available as a PDF from Mowat Research], Dr. Harriet Mowat and her team have made clear predictions about the future of healthcare chaplaincy in the United Kingdom, with strong implications for healthcare chaplaincy in the United States.

• "The National Health Service (NHS) has laid down a requirement that health service treatment should be evidence based... If a practice is not supported by evidence it is unlikely to be resourced." (p. 11)
• "Hospital chaplaincy finds itself in a political setting... [V]alue for money is part and parcel of how chaplains are judged.... [H]ealthcare chaplaincy currently needs to identify its core tasks and skills and its place within a modern healthcare system. ...[T]he distinction between religion and spirituality requires that healthcare chaplains are more robust in their approach to their evidence base." (pp. 16-17)
• "Healthcare chaplains are being asked to show that what they do results in desired outcomes for those they work with.... This requirement is linked to resource allocation." (p. 21)
• "The secure future and positive potential for chaplaincy is linked to creating a better knowledge base about practice." (p. 49)

President Obama has formed a White House Office of Health Reform. Other countries' models for applying cost-effective evidence-based care will be examined. It follows that "the secure future and positive potential for (U.S.) chaplaincy (will soon be) linked to creating a better knowledge base about practice." The handwriting is on the wall.

...Oh, and One More Thing...

Supervisors, please be sure to remind your students to forward their Ideal Intervention Papers or Ideal Intervention Forms as Word document attachments to Fr. Henry Heffernan, SJ at hheffernan@gonzaga.org after review in individual supervision for processing into the growing IIP knowledge base. Have students give you a copy of the cover e-mail message as documentation.

Chaplains, pastoral counselors and other spiritual care practitioners, please forward your completed Ideal Intervention Forms (Practitioners) in like manner. Obtain forms from the e-mail address below.

Contact the Editor at mariejohn50@att.net with your requests, questions and comments.