AFSC Collaborates with Hoag Health Ministries on Spirituality Conference
Alzheimer's Family Services Center (AFSC), in collaboration with the Hoag Health Ministries, hosted Successful Spiritual Care in Aging and Dementia: Meeting Diverse Needs, a conference for clergy, spiritual leaders, and healthcare professionals. The conference was designed to inform, educate, and prepare clergy, spiritual leaders, and healthcare professionals to assist the growing number of families facing Alzheimer's disease or another dementia in our community.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Michael Brandt-Zawadski, Medical Director of the Neurosciences Institute at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, expressed the hospital's commitment to meeting the continuum of needs that individuals with neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease or another dementia, have. Cordula Dick-Muehlke, Ph.D., Executive Director of Alzheimer's Family Services Center, offered insights into how clergy, spiritual leaders, and health care professionals, absent a cure, can help "heal the wounds of Alzheimer's disease" inflicted through stigmatizing attitudes, dismissive interactions, and dehumanizing care. In an interactive presentation by Shirley Otis-Green, LCSW, Senior Research Specialist, City of Hope National Medical Center, attendees practiced conducting a spiritual assessment with each other. To top off the day, the Reverend Nancy Gordon, Director of California Lutheran Homes' Center for Spirituality and Aging, demonstrated a multi-modal worship services for cognitively impaired individuals based on Montessori learning principles. Using simple wooden figurines, Pastor Gordon told the story of "The Good Shepherd" within a brief worship service that incorporated personal greetings and familiar hymns, all designed to help participants "sense the sacred."
Conference attendees were grateful for the venue to explore spirituality, an under-addressed aspect of health care, and impressed by the quality of the material presented. Evaluation results were overwhelmingly positive. As summarized by one attendee, "This conference is wonderful, very informative and helpful for my career and ministry."
AFSC would like to extend a special thank you to Hoag Community Medicine for underwriting the costs associated with the conference, which was provided free of charge, and to the volunteers who helped ensure the event successful.
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