Knowledge Base Now Available to Assist Spiritual Care Practitioners and Students

Are you working with a difficult current spiritual care situation? CPE students, educators, seasoned chaplains, community clergy, academics and other spirit-centered practitioners may now go to the ACPE Research Network’s "Special Section: Ideal Intervention Paper (IIP) Project" for 42 anonymous descriptions of actual cases with suggested interventions. Here is a partial list--by Central Issue Identifier-- that is now available in the Spiritual Care Knowledge Base.

• Anger with God
• Anxious Psych Pt Feeling Isolated, Abandoned
• Belated Receipt of Death Message
• Building a Relationship w Terminal Pt
• Care of MD, Self during Med Emergency
• Caring for the Confused Patient
• Child in Severe Pain
• Communicating Across a Language Barrier
• Completion of Advance Directive Form
• Disoriented Elderly Patient
• Early Recognition of Complicated Grief
• Elderly Frustration w Long Hospitalization
• Elderly Pt's Deteriorating Condition
• Elderly Pt's Frustration at Hospitalization
• Family Divisiveness
• Family Problems
• Family Support After Bypass Surgery
• Feeling Abandoned by God & Family
• Feelings of Guilt or Shame
• Hope in Terminal Illness
• Hopelessness after Terminal Diagnosis
• Lack of Support Systems
• Loss of Personal Independence
• Low Self-Esteem
• Non-receptive Patient & Family
• Patient Despair
• Patient in Pain & Suffering
• Patient Loneliness
• Patient's Family Rejection of Chaplain
• Patient on Ventilator
• Patient in Conflict w Hospital Staff Caregivers
• Patient, Family, & Med Staff Disagreement
• Patient Lacking Social Support Systems
• Recent Div, Alleged Sex Abuser, Homeless
• Shock at News of Loved One's Murder
• Worship Services for Dementia Patients

More IIP Questions and Answers

An experienced counselor taking a summer CPE unit asked, "Is there a risk that going to a spiritual care national knowledge base for help in a particular situation could lead to wooden, impersonal, ‘cookie cutter’ responses?" Possibly, especially if the caregiver seeking insights is a relative spiritual care novice. Mechanical responses are often seen early on as the student tries new ways of ministry, whether the source is the modeling of a mentor, trial-and-error, or the Spiritual Care Knowledge Base.

That same student asked, "Can a pertinent Ideal Intervention Paper’s learnings be considered a treatment plan?" Yes, if one decides it is sufficiently worthy.

A veteran CPE supervisor asked, "What about that spontaneous, off-the-wall intervention that turns out to be just right for the situation? Is that out of the question in this context?" Not at all. One checks the Knowledge Base for the learnings of others, but remains completely free to use or not use what is found there. Hopefully that veteran supervisor will enter that very off-the-wall intervention into the Knowledge Base along with her rationale and details of how she achieved her desired outcome. Then others can weigh it against more orthodox possibilities and decide whether to try it themselves.

A seasoned chaplain asked regarding the IIP design that calls for replications of an intervention with direct feedback from the recipient of the care about its effectiveness, “In dealing with the terminally ill as we so often have to do, how can we possibly get that direct feedback?” Sadly, that feedback is accessible only from loved ones who might have been present or who had heard comments from the dying person. (Note: a person other than the SC caregiver will obtain that feedback for the sake of objectivity in all instances.)

A chaplain well-versed in statistical procedures asked, "How can meaningful conclusions possibly be drawn from the recent spiritual care opinion survey using only percentages?" The survey was clearly labeled as informal, and was intended only to gain general yes-or-no impressions from the respondents regarding spiritual care in comparison with each of 19 specific qualities of a profession.

A summer CPE student from another discipline asked, "Can those of us who will not be working as chaplains submit IIPs?" Most definitely YES!

Perpetual Reminders

CPE Supervisors, don’t forget to remind your students to forward (after review in individual supervision) their Ideal Intervention Papers or like formats as Word document attachments to mariejohn50@att.net for processing into the growing IIP knowledge base. Have students provide a copy of the cover e-mail message as documentation.

Parish clergy, chaplains, pastoral counselors, educators and other spirit-oriented practitioners, please forward your completed Ideal Intervention Papers in like manner.

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