Grant launches initiative to integrate faith perspectives into health education

LAWRENCE — A $60,000, two-year grant from the nonprofit group Interfaith America will be used to integrate faith perspectives into health education and to draw the University of Kansas closer to community partners working in the field.

Jacquelene Brinton, associate professor and chair of KU’s Department of Religious Studies, said the grants are part of Interfaith America’s Faith and Health initiative, funded by the Templeton Foundation.

“We’re hoping to start a religion, spirituality and health care minor,” Brinton said. “The grant will help us incorporate classes on faith and health into the curriculum, reach out to other departments that might participate in the minor and connect with community partners to offer student internships.

“Since religion plays an important role in society, connecting religion and health care helps demonstrate the importance of religious education across multiple disciplines at KU,” Brinton said.

Starting in January, the KU researcher said, the project will include several components each semester for the next two calendar years, including public talks on and off campus.

Those talks will include partnering with DCCCA, a community organization that addresses issues of public safety and health, including addiction and recovery. The talk would address addiction and the importance of religion and spirituality to recovery, the professor said.

Brinton said she also partnered with Lawrence Memorial Hospital, whose spiritual care adviser, Stephanie Petersen, is a graduate of the religious studies bachelor's and master's degree programs. They’ll lead discussions on the importance of spirituality and religion in health care in hospital settings.

“And I partnered with an interfaith organization in Lawrence called Justice Matters as an example of how interfaith communities can address local community issues, especially concerning health disparities,” Brinton said.

The professor said another part of the effort involves service learning — having students work with the local groups in internship settings.

Another grant component is establishing a bioethics course to be taught by Nikia Smith Robert, assistant professor of religious studies, who is also an itinerant elder in the AME Church and a certified chaplain. Vincent Francisco, professor in KU’s Department of Applied Behavioral Science, has also agreed to add his expertise in implementing community-based research to the project, Brinton said.

Brinton called faith and health a growing and important field.

“We have many pre-health students at KU in different fields — from psychology and social work to pre-med, sports medicine and nursing. There is growing recognition that training health care providers to understand the religious and spiritual beliefs of their patients improves health outcomes,” Brinton said. “There’s substantial data supporting this, so people are paying more attention to teaching health care providers how to communicate with people about their religious and spiritual beliefs.

“What people believe about life, death, the body and medicine — many things at the center of health care — are often informed by their religion or spirituality.

“Understanding that and being able to communicate about it is essential. I think there has been a disconnect between patients and their needs in this area and the medical profession, and this program is designed to address that.”