Spiritual Supports as Pathways to Connection

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Spiritual Supports as Pathways to Connection

• Finding Meaning in the Journey

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Understandings of Spirituality

• Two fold definition
• Experience with/of sacred and holy
• Ways that we make meaning, values, purpose

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Spirituality as Connection

• With Self
• With Others
• With Holy/God
• With Time

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Spiritual Questions at the Heart of our Values in
D.D. Services

• Independence Who am I?
• Productivity Why am I?
• Integration Whose am I? underneath the
  Where am I?
• Self Determination How can I shape my life?

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Western Expressions of Those Values and Answers

• Values as Expression of what is Sacred for Us and
  Where We Have Found Meaning
• Independence Who Am I? Self made, Own Person
• Productivity Why Am I? Job, Vocation, Make a
  Difference
• Integration Community Inclusion Presence to
  Membership
• Self Determination Choices, Power, Control

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Theological Questions Right in Front of You

• What it means to be person?
• What it says about God?
• What it says about Gods people church,
  congregation, people?
• How we understand suffering?

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Illness and/or Disability Thinking about it
Universally

• What is it? How is it defined? How does it define
  me?
• Why did it happen?
• How am I to respond to it?
• How are others called to respond?

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In Traumatic Brain Injury

• The reality of loss and the quest for
• meaning.
• Faith and spirituality may be crucial but
• congregations may be barriers as well as
• benefits. Good in crisis, harder in long
  haul.
• The invisibility of disability
• The power of re-membering
• The focus on gifts

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Narratives of Illness and Disability

• Recovery Fix, cure, heal
• Chaos Despair, destroy
• Journey
• Arthur Frank, The Wounded Storyteller

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Public Policy and Spirituality

• Spirituality as private matter, not public
• Separation of church and state
• Science vs. religion
• Equation of faith with reason

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Barriers to Paying Attention

• Spirituality as private matter, not public
• Separation of church and state
• Science vs. religion
• Equation of faith with reason
• Personal experiences
• Hard to talk about. Finding the words.

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Health Services and Spirituality

• Understanding of professional role and identity
• Separation of values and belief from public role
• Pendulum away from proselytizing
• Bewildering array of practices
• Fear of its power

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Recovering the Profess in Professional

• Capacity to journey with others loyalty, fealty
• Capacity to deal with the tough ethical and
  spiritual questions that disability so starkly
  raises for us
• Capacity to recognize and celebrate those holy
  moments and miracles of accomplishment and growth
• Capacity to give thanks for discovery, meaning,
  and gift to us
• Capacity to sacrifice, give up, for sake of others

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Rationales for Paying Attention

• Tapping the power of the sacred in peoples lives
• Ways that people find meaning and cope
• Cultural competency/cultural humility
• Self Determination
• Quality of Life
• Impact on health

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Faith Communities

• Worship and Community Celebration
• Education and Learning
• Socialization and Friendship
• Recreation
• Opportunities for Service to Others
• Networking
• And more.

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So how do we go about it?

• I wanted to ask God why He does not do something
  about the poverty, wars, homelessness, and
  injustice I see around me
• Why dont you?
• I was afraid He would ask me the same question

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Talking about it

• Stories
• Symbols
• Songs
• Rituals
• The things that are most important to us are the
  ones we have a hard time finding the right words
  for.

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How is it important in your life and lives of the
people you care for?

• Think about
• Beliefs
• Practices
• Holidays
• Celebrations
• Culture

• Dress
• Pictures
• Symbols
• History
• TV and Radio

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Finding Out Choice, Preference, and Tradition

• What is/was their personal or family spiritual
  tradition?
• What is it now?
• What are they doing?
• What would they like to do?
• How can you/we help that to happen?

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Assessing Spirituality

• Seven by Seven Model George Fitchett
• FICA. Christine Pulchalski

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Seven by Seven Spiritual Assessment-George
Fitchett

• HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT
• Biological (Medical) Dimension
• Psychological Dimension
• Family Systems Dimension
• Psycho-Social Dimension
• Ethnic/Racial/Cultural Dimension
• Social Issues Dimension
• Spiritual Dimension

• SPIRITUAL ASSESSMENT
• Belief and Meaning
• Vocation and Obligations
• Experience and Emotion
• Courage and Growth
• Ritual and Practice
• Community
• Authority and Guidance

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FICA

• Faith
• Influence and Importance
• Communal Expression
• Assistance
• Christine Puchalski, M.D.
• GWISH, George Washington Institute on
  Spirituality and Health

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Support It

• Staff time
• Revising staff roles
• Opportunity for collaboration and community
  building
• Celebrate it
• Organize it. Roles and programs that bridge,
  network, support
• e.g. Bridges to Faith Model, faith companions

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Community Education and Outreach

• Revised staff roles Embracing Paradoxes
• Do, Be, Do - Belief to belonging to belief to
  action
• Services on needs, community on gifts
• Come to me vs. give it away
• Professional knowledge and professional ignorance
• Everyone a community builder

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Community Building Roles

• Consult Plan with, not for
• Collaborate It takes a villageWhose are they?
• Compete If they can, how come we cant?
• Coach Alongside consumer, congregation

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Coaching Roles

• Vision Art, symbol. Belief, image, poetry,
  values
• Storyteller
• Guide Inward and outward journey
• Celebrant and Blesser

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Be graceful and prophesy

• It takes time. Remember your own story
• Take fear and feelings seriously. Feedback loops
• From fear to love. Ministries of prepositions
• Focus on hospitality and community and gifts

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Resources and Opportunities Its a Gold Mine

• Go where they are
• Find out what is happening already
• Videos and adult education
• Service and mission beyond designated receivers

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Resources and Opportunities (continued)

• Faith group networks. What does Rome say?
• Accessible Congregations Campaign
• Collaborative training
• Find and celebrate the storiesnewsletter,
  publicity
• Not just about people with disabilities Connect
  with all forms of ministry

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Pax and Shalom

• Rev. Bill Gaventa
• The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities
• Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/UMDNJ
• P.O.Box 2688
• New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903
• 732-235-9304
• Email bill.gaventa_at_umdnj.edu