Today, the July issue of CROSSROADS…exploring research on religion, spirituality and health, a publication of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology & Health, was published.
A new resource, mentioned in the newsletter that is now available, is a free 5-part video series on why and how to integrate spirituality into medical care. It’s excellent!
Most of the literature and research on using Spiritual Assessments to address the health of patients has been related to providing medical care in a clinical setting. I have not read much about assessment tools that can be used in settings outside of a hospital or physician office.
So, today I spent some time developing a (work-in-progress) document – Spiritual Assessments for Health Practitioners – that can be used by providers of other health-related services – personal trainers, health educators, massage therapists, yoga instructors, wellness and health coaches, etc. – to facilitate discussions on spiritual matters as they relate to a person’s health and wellbeing. The document provides suggested questions that could be used as a ‘spiritual assessment’ and to begin a dialogue with your clients about spiritual health issues.
In 2008, I developed a Spiritual Fitness Assessment (SFA) tool. That SFA could be used as a more in-depth spiritual assessment as a follow-up to the more broad set of questions in the suggested spiritual assessment document that I developed today.
If you’re a practitioner in the health, fitness or wellness-related field, and interested in this topic of spiritual assessment, I’d welcome a dialogue on the feasibility and appropriateness of this document I created today. You’re encouraged to make a comment below.
Thanks….. and I hope that you have a terrific day!
