Course 1: Understanding Health and Healing

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Course 1:
Understanding
Health and Healing

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Doctor Performing Health Assesment

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Course Instructions

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Introduction

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Whole Person Care Program

person Course 1
Understanding Health & Healing
search Course 2
Motivation for Spirituality in Health Care
extension Course 3
Personal, Environmental, & Staff Preparation for Whole Person
check_circle Course 4
Strategies for Spiritual Care in a Health Care Setting
stars Course 5
Living & Maturing as a Christian Health Care Professional
library_books Resources
Course Resources

Understanding Health and Healing Outline

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person

Course 1

Understanding Health and Healing

Course Outline

  1. Why Whole Person Care?
  2. Mind, Body, and Spirit
  3. Interconnected Practice
  4. Understanding Health and Healing
  5. Conclusion

Elements of the Whole Person

Elements of the Whole Person

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Mark 12:30 (NIV)

Doctor Performing Health Assesment

Whole Person Care

Whole Person Care

The practice of integrating the multiple facets that define us as human into the regular routines of patient doctor interactions and care.

Just as good physical care requires the integrated assessment of multiple organ systems, Whole Person Care requires the evaluation of all possible issues impacting a person’s well-being, including their mind, body, and spirit.

Proper Whole Person Care is meant to improve health in all aspects of a patient’s life.

Case Study: Maria

Case Study

Maria

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Why Whole Person Care?

Why Whole Person Care?

More Effective Care

Generally Accepted by Patients

Accrediting Organizations

Biblical

Hope

Note: Whole Person Care requires the integration of the multiple facets that defines us as human, just as good physical care requires the integration of multiple organ systems.

Whole Person Care

Whole Person Care

mind body spirit

You can be trained

Nurse Image

Whole Person Care interconnections are too complex.

Common Medical Practices that Require Integration

health care provider and elderly woman with cane

Scenario

Common Medical Practices that Require Integration

78-year-old Grandmother with a Broken Hip

When you look into the patient’s history, you find the following:

  • ✓ Poor Cardiovascular Health
  • ✓ Peripheral Artery Disease
  • ✓ Hypertension
  • ✓ Previous TIAs
  • ✓ Small Non-Debilitating Strokes
  • ✓ Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

help

What could have happened if you had started surgery before knowing her history?

Case Study: Maria (1)

Emotional
Spiritual
Job

Case Study

Maria

Social
Family
Faith
Prayer
videocam

You need to assess all components of the person to provide Whole Person Care.

Case Study: Maria (2)

Emotional
Spiritual
Job

Case Study

Maria

Social
Family
Faith
Prayer
Maria
warning

Deciding if this case is a medical miracle or not, is not for us to decide.

Case Study: Maria (3)

Emotional
Spiritual
Job

Case Study

Maria

Social
Family
Faith
Prayer
Maria
create

What about whole person care is appealing to you?

The Whole Person

The Whole Person

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

The Whole Person has multiple interconnecting dimensions

Historical Perspective

Historical Perspective

Greek Philosophers

Aristotle     Plato

Biblical

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:5 (ESV)
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV)
For more information, see “Course 1 Resources" in the "Resources" section in this Whole Person Care Program.
Holding hands in prayer
Note:
Biblically the word “soul” can refer to mind, a living being, breath, or an immortal spirit, depending on when and in what language it was written.

Mind

MIND

The mind is the element that enables a person to be aware of the world and personal experiences and that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, and judges.

Healthy

Unhealthy

  • Logical thinking
  • Grows in knowledge and skills
  • Understands and comprehends data
  • Functioning memory
  • Illogical thinking
  • Unable to acquire knowledge and skills
  • Confusion
  • Memory loss

Body

BODY

The human body is the entire physical structure of a human being. It is composed of many different types of cells that together form tissues and subsequently organ systems. They ensure homeostasis and viability of the human body.

Healthy

Unhealthy

  • Proper amounts of energy
  • Vigorous fitness
  • Excellent physical functioning
  • Excellent physical structure
  • Lack of energy
  • Disease
  • Abnormal physical functioning
  • Abnormal physical structure

Spirit

SPIRIT

The spirit is the non-physical part of a person that includes the spiritual, emotional, social, and religious components of personhood.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Genesis 2:7 (NIV)

Spiritual Life

SPIRIT

Spiritual Life

Based on personal relationship with God

Healthy

Unhealthy

  • Receives identity from God
  • Receives love and acceptance from God
  • Retains trust in God during stress
  • Grows and matures in spiritual life
  • Recognizes brokenness and need for forgiveness
  • Maintains confidence in self-worth
  • Finds meaning in life
  • Retains hope for the future
  • Does not seek connection with God
  • Doubt in God’s faithfulness during stress
  • Lacks purpose, confidence, self-worth
  • Loses hope and stops self-care
  • Receives identity from performance or others
  • Searches desperately for self-worth and acceptance
  • Identified by past failures and shame
  • Overwhelmed by unresolved guilt

Emotional Life

SPIRIT

Emotional Life

Instinctive state or intuitive feelings as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge

Healthy

Unhealthy

  • Identification and ownership of emotions emerging during illness
  • Acknowledging and addressing painful experiences
  • Willingness to change behaviors
  • Dominance of fear, anger, hurt, loss, grief
  • Reemergence of unresolved feelings
  • Allowing feelings to dictate behaviors

Social Life

SPIRIT

Social Life

Matters related to family, culture, community, and supportive relationships

Healthy

Unhealthy

  • Permits others to assist and influence them
  • Accepts others as they are
  • Positive, ongoing involvement with family
  • Lives responsibly for their community and the earth
  • Chooses isolation due to shame
  • Unable to demonstrate love
  • Strained and broken relationships with family
  • Self protects and withdraws

Religious Life

SPIRIT

Religious Life

An organized system of beliefs, practices, and symbols related to the transcendent

Healthy

Unhealthy

  • A worldview that is based on God
  • Regular involvement in activities that enhance the spiritual life
  • Values relationships and personhood
  • Bases worldview on something other than God
  • Avoids involvement in activities that enhance the spiritual life
  • Values include whatever enhances self; relationships are for exploitation

Maria's Warning Signs

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

Maria's Warning Signs

Maria
create What would you expect to see?

Maria's Answers: Mind

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

Maria's Answers: Mind

question_answer

I had racing thoughts, as my mind considered all the different problems the baby might have to deal with, and what it would be like to be the baby’s mother.

Maria's Answers: Body

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

Maria's Answers: Body

question_answer

I struggled with insomnia. I couldn’t stop thinking about what might happen to my baby, what my life would be like.

Maria's Answers: Spirit

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

Maria's Answers: Spirit

question_answer

I felt sadness; the pregnancy wasn’t starting as a happy experience.

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I wanted to isolate socially at first, due to my shame.

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I felt guilt and was actually told by a doctor that these problems occur more often in Hispanic women, and maybe the child was malformed because of my age, my race, or my diabetes.

question_answer

My relationship with God was affected; I was worried that He was punishing me for a specific sin in my past.

Your Response

Your Response

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

The Whole Person has multiple interconnecting dimensions

Personal Struggles and Challenges

Person standing on a mountain looking at sunset

Personal Struggles and Challenges

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

Understanding Health and Healing

Understanding Health and Healing

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

3 John 1:2 (ESV)

Woman Reading Bible

Health

Health

World Health Organization (WHO):

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Merriam-Webster:

The condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit; especially: freedom from physical disease or pain.

help

How might the practices of health care professionals differ depending on which definition they agree with?

Holding hands in prayer
Your understanding and belief about health and illness dictate how you approach your professional practice, which in turn may cause you to place limitations on patient care.

Definition of Illness

Definition of Illness

May refer to any condition that causes pain, distress, social problems, or death to the person afflicted.

(Wikipedia)

Produces multidimensional brokenness that impacts a person as a whole.

(Elder, 1999)

Holding hands in prayer
Your understanding and belief about health and illness dictate how you approach your professional practice, which in turn may cause you to place limitations on patient care.

Illness

Illness

Please write down your answers to the following questions for later review.

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How do you define illness?

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What is your role in addressing illness? How much control do you have in this role?

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What are your limitations in addressing illness?

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What is God’s role in addressing illness?

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How can illness be connected to spiritual issues?

Holding hands in prayer
Your understanding and belief about health and illness dictate how you approach your professional practice, which in turn may cause you to place limitations on patient care.

Illness from a Christian Perspective (1)

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Illness

Illness from a
Christian Perspective


Before Sin entered into the world, there was no illness or death.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'

Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV)

Illness from a Christian Perspective (2)

tree with multi-colored leaves

Illness

Illness from a
Christian Perspective


Before the forbidden fruit was eaten:

  • Physical: Had excellent health, there was no illness or death, had strength to work the land in the garden (Gen. 2:15).
  • Cognitive: Their minds were able to think clearly, manage the garden, and name every animal (Gen. 1:27-29; 2:15; 2:19-20).
  • Social/emotional: God understood man’s need for relationship, and gave him Eve, and instructed them to become one in relationship with each other (Gen. 2:22-24).
  • Spiritual: Adam and Eve walked freely with God in the garden, and they felt no shame (Gen. 2:25).

The Forbidden Fruit (1)

tree with multi-colored leaves

Illness

The Forbidden Fruit


Adam and Eve both knew that they should not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. However, Satan, who took the form of a serpent, planted doubts about God’s character.

'You will not certainly die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'

Genesis 3:4-5 (NIV)

The Forbidden Fruit (2)

tree with multi-colored leaves

Illness

The Forbidden Fruit


As a result of this betrayal of God and the eating of the forbidden fruit, Sin enters the world. Sin’s effects on Adam and Eve were instantaneous.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:7 (NIV)

In order for Adam and Eve to suddenly realize that they were naked, they had to think of themselves differently. This brought about the emotions of shame, vulnerability, and fear.

Effects of Sin

tree with multi-colored leaves

Illness

Effects of Sin


After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, in Genesis 3:14-20, Sin entered into the world and changed many things.

  • Mental: Focus shift from God to self (Gen. 3:13).
  • Emotional: Shame and blaming each other (Gen. 3:7-8).
  • Physical: Childbirth would now be painful, mankind will now have a shortened lifespan, work would no longer be easy (Gen. 3:16; Rom. 5:12).
  • Spiritual: Mankind’s strong connection with God is broken (Gen. 3:7-8, 32-34).
  • Social: Man and woman’s relationship would become more complicated (Gen. 3:7-8, 12, 16).
  • Effects on Creation: The earth itself would be cursed, creating for the first time thorns and thistles (Gen. 3:16-19; Rom. 8:18-25).

This gives a different understanding of Sin. Sin is a condition that is inherited and infects all of mankind.

Adam and Eve’s Symptoms

tree with multi-colored leaves

Illness

Adam and Eve’s Symptoms

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If Adam and Eve were to seek medical care, how would they have described their symptoms to a doctor?

For more information, see “Course 1 Resources" in the "Resources" section in this Whole Person Care Program.

Important Note (1)

important note

If someone is sick, it does not necessarily mean that person has sinned and now is being punished. This is a common misunderstanding even among Christians. The disciples of Jesus had an incorrect understanding of this concept as well, which was addressed by Jesus in John 9:1-7.

Important Note (2)

important note

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.' Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, 'Go, wash in the pool of Siloam' (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

John 9:1-7 (ESV)

Sin and Illness (1)

tree with multi-colored leaves

Illness

Sin and Illness


Your understanding and belief about health and illness dictate how you approach your professional practice, which in turn may cause you to place limitations on patient care.

If illness is a direct result of Sin, then…

help

Does all illness have a spiritual dimension?

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Is the role of a health care professional to promote healing or merely to promote prolonged life?

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Is it only God who can bring about complete healing to a patient’s mind, body, and spirit?

Sin and Illness (2)

tree with multi-colored leaves

Illness

Sin and Illness


Your understanding and belief about health and illness dictate how you approach your professional practice, which in turn may cause you to place limitations on patient care.
help

How do you define illness?

help

What is your role in addressing illness? How much control do you have in this role?

help

What are your limitations in addressing illness?

help

What is God’s role in addressing illness?

help

How is illness connected to spiritual issues?

Health and Healing

Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Healing

Healing occurs through restoration of the Whole Person from brokenness to excellent functioning of the mind, body, and spirit. Where recovery from illness can be attained through medical practices, true healing can only be found in God.

Hand Writing
Your understanding and belief about health and illness dictate how you approach your professional practice, which in turn may cause you to place limitations on patient care.

Health and Healing Retrospective

Person standing on a mountain looking at sunset

If healing only alters the physical processes, then people with distorted thinking, fractured relationships, and loss of personhood simply have stronger bodies in which to experience their brokenness.

Conclusion

Conclusion

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (ESV)
Doctor Performing Health Assesment

Whole Person Care Review

Whole Person Care

The practice of integrating the multiple facets that define us as human into the regular routines of patient doctor interactions and care.

Just as good physical care requires the integrated assessment of multiple organ systems, Whole Person Care requires the evaluation of all possible issues impacting a person’s well-being, including their mind, body, and spirit.

Proper Whole Person Care is meant to improve health in all aspects of a patient’s life.

Whole Person Care Leads to True Healing

Emotional
Spiritual
Job
person
Social
Family
Faith
Prayer
Maria

Whole Person Care Leads to True Healing

Mind, Body, Spirit Review

The Whole Person

MIND

BODY

SPIRIT

The Whole Person has multiple interconnecting dimensions

Health and Healing Review

Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Healing

Healing occurs through restoration of the Whole Person from brokenness to excellent functioning of the mind body and spirit. Where recovery from illness can be attained though medical practices, true healing can only be found in God.

Person standing on a mountain looking at sunset
If healing only alters the physical processes, then people with distorted thinking, fractured relationships, and loss of personhood simply have stronger bodies in which to experience their brokenness.

End-of-Course Survey

End-of-Course Survey

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