Regrettably, I am still a reader of the Daily Mail online. Whilst often infuriating, it does occasionally have its good points. Recently, an article on a new book about ‘mind over body’ – ‘The cancer patient cured by a broken radiotherapy machine and the paralysed man who walked again after visiting Lourdes: New book shows incredible influence of the mind over the body’ reminded me of Louise Hay’s excellent ‘You Can Heal Your Life.’ Hay considers the psychological/emotional/spiritual meanings and connections of physical illness, and offers those dimensions as spaces to support healing. All of this, in turn, got me thinking about faith, religion and spirituality as sites of care practices, sources and resources of care, and, then, their relationship(s) with care ethics. I realised that we have not as yet tapped this seam in our critique of care, and so wanted to raise this as a topic, perhaps for further discussion/contributions. Here is a brief bibliography to help get us started:
- Akintola, Olagoke. “What motivates people to volunteer? The case of volunteer AIDS caregivers in faith-based organizations in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.” Health policy and planning 26.1 (2011): 53-62.
- Borneman, Tami, Betty Ferrell, and Christina M. Puchalski. “Evaluation of the FICA tool for spiritual assessment.” Journal of pain and symptom management 40.2 (2010): 163-173.
- Bramadat, Paul, Harold Coward, and Kelli I. Stajduhar, eds. Spirituality in Hospice Palliative Care. SUNY Press, 2013.
- Fasching, Darrell J., and David M. Lantigua. Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative Approach to Global Ethics. Wiley. 2011.
- Jaschok, Maria, and Jingjun Shui. Women, Religion, and Space in China: Islamic Mosques & Daoist Temples, Catholic Convents & Chinese Virgins. Routledge, 2012.
- Koenig, Harold G. “Research on religion, spirituality, and mental health: A review.” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 54.5 (2009): 283-291.
- MacKinlay, Elizabeth. Palliative Care, Ageing and Spirituality: A Guide for Older People, Carers and Families. Jessica Kingsley, 2012.
- Moberg, David O. Aging and spirituality: Spiritual dimensions of aging theory, research, practice, and policy. Routledge, 2012.
- Pearce, Michelle J., et al. “Unmet spiritual care needs impact emotional and spiritual well-being in advanced cancer patients.” Supportive Care in Cancer 20.10 (2012): 2269-2276.
- Puchalski, Christina, et al. “Improving the quality of spiritual care as a dimension of palliative care: the report of the consensus conference.” Journal of palliative medicine 12.10 (2009): 885-904.
- Ransford, H. Edward, Frank R. Carrillo, and Yessenia Rivera. “Health care-seeking among Latino immigrants: blocked access, use of traditional medicine, and the role of religion.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 21.3 (2010): 862-878.
- Seale, Clive. “The role of doctors’ religious faith and ethnicity in taking ethically controversial decisions during end-of-life care.” Journal of Medical Ethics 36.11 (2010): 677-682.
- Stulberg, Debra B., Jason Shattuck, and Farr A. Curlin. “Religious hospitals and primary care physicians: conflicts over policies for patient care.” Journal of general internal medicine 25.7 (2010): 725-730.
- Swinton, John, and Stephen Pattison. “Moving beyond clarity: towards a thin, vague, and useful understanding of spirituality in nursing care.” Nursing Philosophy 11.4 (2010): 226-237
Care to comment/ discuss?