Spirituality and Medicine: Frontiers of Care is a free forum open to the public. It will take place on Sunday April 27, 2008, 2:00 - 5:00p.m. at St. John's Persbyterian Church, 5020 W. Belfort Ave., Houston, TX (just off Loop 610). Forum panelists include: Phil Johnson, Memorial Herman
Susan Lange, Interface Samaritan Counseling Centers
Cheryl Smith, First United Methodist Church, Pasadena
Steven Spidell, Prebyterian Outreach to Patients
Pamela Taylor, texas Children's Hospital

For more information, call Rev. Dr. James S. Curie, associate dean of the Houston Extension Program at 713-965-0766.

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A web-based educational program is available through EndLink, as a resource for end of life care education. Sponsored by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, the site was developed with funding from a National Cancer Institute Grant. Rather than providing answers, the site attempts to offer frameworks for thinking about caring for the dying individuals and their families. The content of the site was written primarily for health care professionals who work with the dying patients and their families. The material presented encompasses the complex, multidimensional considerations involved in caring for individuals at the end of life. You can reach this site through the following web address: http://ednlink.lurie.norhtwestern.edu/index.cfm

Posted by David Jenkins at 1:38 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

In an article entitled, "Exposing the Spiritual Crisis of Modern Medicine", Dr. Rachel Remen offers these words for reflection: Over time an illness can become a spiritual path. If one genuinely and unflinchingly meets the difficulties of an illness, especially a serious illness, the person you are at the end can be larger than the person you were going in, and all those around you can become larger people and live deeper lives as well. This is possible even in the absence of cure. We can't cure everything or even most things. Cure was the great hope when the age of scientific medicine burst in on us - we were going to be able to fix it all. We now know that a great many things can't be fixed, but even so, the possibility of growing beyond our limitations, of becoming able to live more deeply and passionately with greater meaning is always there, even in the absence of cure. It's possible to live a good life even though it is not an easy life. Dr. Remen speaks from her own experience as one diagnosed with Crohn's disease fifty-two years ago...

You are welcome to join us on our community forum message board to discuss and reflect upon Dr. Remen's words of wisdom.

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