Developing a Training Course for Spiritual Counselors in Health Care: Evidence from Iran

Investigating the relationship between spiritual well-being, resilience, and depression: a cross-sectional study of the elderly

BACKGROUND

Mental health of the elderly is one of the health problems in most societies. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between spiritual well-being (SWB), resilience, and depression among the elderly.

METHODS

This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on 384 elderly selected by convenience-sampling method. Abbreviated Mental Test (AMT), SWB, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were used to collect the data. Pearson correlation coefficient, analysis of variance and independent t-test were used to analyze the data. A path analysis was also run to test the direct and indirect effects of SWB and resilience on the depression variable.

RESULTS

The results showed a statistically significant positive correlation between SWB and resilience (r = 0.458, P < 0.001), a statistically significant negative correlation between SWB and depression (r = -0.471, P < 0.001) and between resilience and depression (r = -0.371, P < 0.001). Path analysis showed that SWB and resilience directly affected depression while SWB indirectly affected depression.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicated there was an inverse relationship between SWB and resilience with depression. Religious programs and appropriate educational programs can help improve SWB and promote resilience in the elderly, which will reduce their depression symptoms.

Implementing quality improvement efforts in spiritual care: outcomes from the interprofessional spiritual care education curriculum

The Interprofessional Spiritual Care Curriculum (ISPEC) was created to train interdisciplinary health care teams to recognize and address the spiritual needs of seriously or chronically ill patients. The curriculum, in a train-the-trainer format, employs didactic presentations, discussions, lab sessions, skill demonstrations, and video clips. In course applications, participants were required to submit goals to achieve and demonstrate institutional support. For the first ISPEC course, in July 2018, 48 clinician-chaplain teams attended. Following the 2½ day course, participants had access to online training modules for 1-year, ISPEC faculty mentoring support, and regular conference calls on goal implementation progress. Participants reported recognizing the importance of providing spiritual care and a new understanding of how collaborating as interprofessional teams enabled them to integrate this care into their home institution settings. In a mixed-methods evaluation survey completed 12 months after the ISPEC course, participants reported on the percentage of their goals completed, number and types of professionals they had educated in spiritual care, and personal confidence regarding spiritual care leadership skills. This data can serve as a model to guide other organizations striving to improve spiritual care, practiced collaboratively by clinicians and chaplains, as an essential aspect of overall QI efforts in palliative care.

A policy analysis of the national phenylketonuria screening program in Iran

Background

Phenylketonuria (PKU) screening is a public health measure taken to diagnose and treat the patients with PKU to prevent severe neurological disorders in them. The present study was aimed at analyzing the policies of the national PKU screening (NaPS) program in Iran.

Methods

PKU screening program policies were analyzed in compliance with the policy triangle model. Document review and 38 semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. Document review data were analyzed using content analysis, and interview data were analyzed using framework analysis.

Results

The national PKU screening (NaPS) program was a decision made at the genetics department of Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) in Iran. Many internal and external stakeholders were involved in it and valid evidence was used to formulate the policies. Despite some opposition and insufficient support, the program was implemented due to the continuous persistence of parents, interested executives, formulated valid content and a top-down approach. The main barriers included rapid substitution of managers, shortage of Phe-free milk, little awareness of patients’ families, social stigma, and inadequate co-operation of some hospital administrators.

Conclusions

The policy triangle framework contributed to explaining the different components of the PKU screening program. A successful PKU screening program requires more stability of senior managers in MOHME, enough human resources and Phe-free milk, educating patients’ families, and commitment of hospitals administrators. Meanwhile, all the stakeholders need to be involved in the program effectively.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06116-w.

Progress in psycho-oncology with special reference to developing countries

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Psycho-oncology has completed 25 years. There is growing recognition of the psychosocial needs of persons living with cancer and the role of sociocultural factors in addressing the needs. This review addresses the research in developing countries relating to distress associated with living with cancer and psychosocial care.

RECENT FINDINGS

There is growing recognition of the emotional needs, understanding of the sociocultural aspects of the emotional responses of persons, caregivers, role of resilience and posttraumatic growth and spirituality in cancer care. Psychosocial aspects of cancer are largely influenced by social, economic, cultural, religious and health systems. A number of innovative approaches to care like use of yoga, financial and material support and involvement of caregivers have been implemented. A positive development is the increasing professional attention to document and develop innovative care programmes.

SUMMARY

A significant proportion of the general population are living with cancer. There are significant psychosocial needs largely influenced by social, economic, cultural, religious aspects of the communities. There are a wide range of interventions from self-care to professional care to address the needs. In developing countries, there is need for longitudinal studies of psycho-social experiences, develop interventions that are culturally appropriate, along with enhanced use of information technology along with evaluation of interventions.

Who Can Provide Spiritual Counseling? A Qualitative Study from Iran

Background and Aim:

Given the increased prevalence of mental illnesses in recent years, many therapists and researchers use spiritual counseling (SC), which is one of the spiritual interventions. However, unfortunately, the use of this intervention by the therapists is nonscientific because the ambiguities of this issue are high in the mental health field of Iran. The aim of this study is to survey the following most important challenges: what groups are qualified to provide SC, what kind of knowledge should be known by suitable individuals, who can train spiritual counselors, what they should teach, and what teaching methods should be used.

Methods:

The present conventional qualitative content analysis used deep semi-structured interview to collect data from the view of stakeholders. A total of 15 people were selected through purposive sampling. After transcription of the interviews, the data were analyzed based on the Graneheim and Lundman model.

Results:

Results obtained from data analysis covered five main themes including SC candidates, general conditions, sciences required, SC curriculum, and spiritual counselors' training method.

Conclusions:

The present study has answered to the most basic questions in SC scope. Since spiritual services are rooted in our culture and religion, native guidelines should be created for them as soon as possible through conducting similar qualitative researches. Furthermore, it is worth considering teaching and training case in this scope to make spiritual service providers concern about solutions to promote these services.