The Unbroken Circle: A Toolkit for Congregations Around Illness, End of Life, and Grief

Primary Author: James L Brooks, Duke University

The Unbroken Circle: A Toolkit for Congregations Around Illness, End of Life, and Grief is a new resource filled with practical tools and guidance to help congregations care for people facing illness, dying and bereavement. Developed by the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life and written by Rev. James L. Brooks, it provides clergy, lay leaders, parish nurses and chaplains with an inspiring vision, easy-to-use tools, specific tips, and hundreds of additional resources.

The Toolkit starts with a call to action and provides templates for congregations to plan a discussion of these issues. It also includes guidelines for support groups, information on how to offer spiritual support to families, and outlines for educational programs and liturgical services. The Toolkit is designed to be in sync with the self-organization of congregations, including organizing illness, death, and grief information specifically geared towards adult and child education, congregational care, and worship, facility, and clergy leadership.

Published in the summer of 2009, The Unbroken Circle has been embraced by congregationally-based clergy and nurses, chaplains in health care settings, educators in seminaries and clinical pastoral education programs, and students interested in spiritual dimensions of caring for those with advanced illness.

Religious Diversity: Practical Points for Health Care Providers

Primary Author: John Ehman, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania & Penn Presbyterian Medical Center

Printable tipsheet for health care providers to use when caring for patients from a number of different religious traditions. These are not comprehensive descriptions but rather practical items that may affect a patient, family, and care team during a hospitalization. Includes points for Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Jehovah's Witness, Jewish, Muslim, and Pentecostal patients.

This is also available as a tri-fold brochure. Contact the author, Chaplain John Ehman at the Department of Pastoral Care in the University of Pennsylvania Health System: john.ehman@uphs.upenn.edu

Spiritual Assessment in Clinical Practice

Primary Author: Christina M Puchalski, George Washington University Medical Center

Spiritual and Cultural Aspects of Palliative Care and The Interdisciplinary Team

Primary Author: Yale School of Medicine

A Lion in the House DVD Modules for Health Care Education

Primary Author: A Lion in the House, Community Media Productions, Inc.

A compelling set of teaching modules is available from the Emmy Award-winning documentary about children with cancer, A LION IN THE HOUSE. Based on real-life case studies, where things do not always go so well, the stories offer a forum to consider and discuss approaches to helping families navigate life and death issues related to cancer.

The Case Studies in Spirituality and Childhood Cancer Module offers specific, complicated case studies around issues of spirituality during a pediatric medical crisis. The Institute of Medicine defines pediatric palliative care to include the spiritual needs of a family, with a broad view of spirituality as the search for meaning and purpose in life and in death. Many families rely on spiritual resources in times of health-related crises, especially at end-of-life. Yet the majority of medical caregivers do not address issues of spirituality with their patients, with many feeling ill-equipped to do so. This module offers the insight of several veteran pediatric oncologists around spirituality issues.

-Each DVD module contains mini movies shot over a course of six years, competencies & objectives, discussion questions, a recommended resource list, and a PowerPoint presentation.