Ross Bryson
- Whole Person Health Trust, 2012
- £7.00 Pb 72 pp
- ISBN 978-0-9544644-6-2
Enter here and enjoy a book that provides a unique insight into practical whole person care with an emphasis on patients' spiritual needs. The contributors offer wise consideration of spirituality as an integral component of persons and describe its place in holistic care based on extensive experience.
The role of the community healthcare chaplain is defined by a distinctive combination of eight 'key functions' and the personal qualities needed for their practice. Separate chapters describe the difference between spiritual care and counselling and the function of a prayer clinic in general practice - all set in the reality of urban clinical care.
The evaluation of such a service and its difficulty is tackled head-on using data from research on the impact of a community healthcare chaplain. From qualitative studies, spiritual care emerges as an important component of treatment, and a person's story as the centre of the health care process. Above all, these convey the deeply healing effect of spiritual care delivered with Christian understanding and compassion in the setting of holistic medical practice.
Richard Vincent is an Emeritus Professor at Brighton and Sussex.
