Page 2

Volume 1, Issue 1
October 1999

Center for Spiritual
Life and Wholeness
Loma Linda
University

As this newsletter came together I received news that I had become a great-grandfather. On the internet this child already has a web page of his own, with pictures of his birth and becoming. There is something wonderful and awesome about that which is new, which has never been before, feels helpless and dependent, and is about to take on a life of its own. With the printing of this newsletter something new, helpless, and wonderful is coming into being. Our Center is now more than two years old and it is time to bring you some news and views about spiritual life and wholeness which, hopefully, will seem new and fresh as a great-grandchild. Bless you for reading. Please let us know what we can include in future newsletters to keep each of us growing in Him and for Him.

Congratulations to the department of psychiatry

The department of psychiatry at Loma Linda University School of Medicine was awarded a $15,000 grant from the Templeton Foundation in the spring of 1998. Loma Linda University was one of eight schools to receive grants from the Templeton Foundation. The Templeton Foundation grant will be used to develop and implement a curriculum which will consist of specialized training for psychiatry residents and psychology interns in the area of integration of spirituality and practice. The department of psychiatry plans to implement the curriculum over a two to three year period. The new religion/spirituality in clinical practice curriculum will help to educate psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and other health professionals to assist them with integrating spirituality into their professional activities. The curriculum will also lead to more programmatic research in the area of mental health and spiritual practices and beliefs. Once implemented, the department of psychiatry plans to make the curriculum a permanent fixture in the psychiatry and psychology programs.

Spirituality research

A pilot study on the role that spirituality plays in the cessation of nicotine use is being conducted by Linda Hyder-Ferry, MD, chief of preventive medicine at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center, and associate professor for both the LLU School of Medicine and School of Public Health. The relationship between spirituality and addiction treatment is well documented for alcohol and narcotics. However, the relationship between spirituality and treatment for nicotine addiction is relatively unexplored. The researchers hope to prove a correlation between spiritual principles and the recovery process of addiction. The preliminary findings on the first 30 patients indicate 60 percent believe spirituality played an important role in their effort to quit smoking. Dr. Hyder-Ferry hopes that the findings from the pilot study will encourage funding for the development of a stop-smoking program targeted for the heavy smoker population, utilizing a Christ-centered approach to smoking cessation.

Wholeness assessment at Loma Linda University

Recently, an interdisciplinary team of professors and students at LLU have been developing an instrument for assessment known as the Wholeness Inventory©. The purpose of this instrument is to provide an opportunity for students, faculty, and alumni to evaluate how Loma Linda University has contributed to their development toward wholeness. The work builds on the definition of wholeness that was developed during the preparation of the University's self-study for its regional accreditation in 1998 and 1999. As part of the accreditation process, the University selected wholeness as the unifying theme for its self-study. An emphasis on wholeness, including "wholistic" education for students and "wholistic" care for patients, has been a central feature of LLU's mission from its earliest days. It was only recently, however, that the University developed a campus-wide definition of wholeness. This definition affirms that wholeness, as understood by LLU, "means the lifelong, harmonious development of the physical, intellectual, emotional, relational, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of a person's life, unified through a loving relationship with God and expressed in generous service to others." Using this definition as a basis for its work, the interdisciplinary task force, headed by professor Carla Gober, associate director of the Center for Spiritual Life and Wholeness, has developed an assessment tool with approximately 60 items. This Wholeness Inventory© has been refined through the use of student focus groups and has been pilot tested with 150 students. The results of the pilot testing are now being analyzed for statistical reliability. The current plan calls for the inventory to be administered to all LLU students during the coming school year. Additional versions of the inventory are being developed for faculty and alumni. Eventually, a version for patients will also be developed. The goal of this assessment activity is to help the University better serve all members of its community in their pursuit of wholeness.