TruthBook Religious News Blog

REBECCA RAKOCZY, Special To The Bulletin
Published: May 8, 2008

ATLANTA—A person’s faith and religious life may change as he or she enters into old age, but that doesn’t diminish the need for spiritual connections to nourish mental health.

Finding out how to spark those connections in elderly populations was the topic of the second annual Spirituality in Aging Partnership series, a half-day conference sponsored by Catholic Charities Atlanta.

With keynote speaker Nancy Kriseman, who is a licensed clinical social worker in gerontology and author of “The Caring Spirit,” more than 100 people—comprised of pastoral care staff, personal caregivers and health ministry nurses—were given advice on how to connect to their clients in a more holistic and spiritual way. The gathering took place at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in midtown Atlanta.

Kriseman asked audience members about their own definitions of spirituality and spoke about her experiences with her aging parents, while also encouraging the audience to share their experiences. Her mother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and died recently; her father had pulmonary lung disease and dementia and passed away several years ago.

“A lot of times we think if an older person was not a spiritual or religious person, they don’t need spiritual care,” Kriseman said. “But the majority of people in the world are spiritual in some way.

“For caregivers it is important to ask the question,” she said. For example, “How do you know the spiritual state of the person who has dementia? If you don’t know, ask their family members, ‘how has their faith carried them through life?’”

Even if the person did not have a strong faith foundation or did not demonstrate that faith to the outside world, spiritual connections can be made through music, like singing a familiar hymn or song, in ritual or prayers, or in comforting scents, like baking bread or cookies, she said. “It can mean asking ‘what does faith mean to you,’ or ‘what does grace mean to you,’” she said. It’s also important that you encourage a spiritual connection by asking questions about pictures of people and things that matter to them, she added. “We need to help our elders find their jingle,” she said.

Connecting with an elder’s spiritual side to “find that jingle” doesn’t have to be reserved for pastors, she said, although she acknowledged circumstances when pastoral intervention was needed.

“The work of the spirit is not just for pastoral folks,” Kriseman said. For caregivers—including those taking care of parents—it’s important to refresh their own spiritual life and not become “dispirited,” especially in the knowledge of an incurable condition, like Alzheimer’s disease, she said.

“People do need the space to grieve every time (their loved one) changes,” she said. “But if you’re caring for a parent, it’s important to remember this is a role change, not a role reversal—your mother will always be your mother.”

Kriseman also encouraged those in attendance to give permission to embrace their own spirituality, even as they care for someone who is not their relative. “Very rarely do caregivers get to talk about their own spiritual care,” she said.

“It’s a blessing to work with older people—you’re helping them finish well,” she said.

Patti Miller, coordinator of family faith formation at St. John Neumann Church in Lilburn, was listening to Kriseman’s words carefully. Miller came to the conference not only to learn more about spirituality and aging to pass on to her congregation, but also because she has three family members who are elderly.

“This is at the forefront for me,” she said. She came with fellow parishioner Sherry Johnson, who has worked with adult faith formation and RCIA at their church and has been a trauma care nurse for years. “This (spiritual side of care) was not always at the forefront, but it’s becoming more a part of nursing,” Johnson said.

As their parish ages, said Miller, “a lot of families are asking these same questions (that Kriseman brought up.) We wanted to find out what’s new out there from a Christian and Catholic perspective.”

Said Krygiel of Catholic Charities, “ It’s our responsibility to take care of our senior population.” He cited the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops 1999 statement, “The Blessings of Age.”

All parishes and churches are called to respond to this,” he said. “We cannot sit idle.”

Labels: caregivers, elderly, faith, mental health, Rebecca Rakoczy, spirituality

Permalink | Link to External Source Article

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Many Alzheimer's caregivers seek help in God

About a third of those who take care of loved ones with the disease feel 'more religious' because of their experiences, a new national study says.

By Tami Abdollah, Times Staff Writer
March 14, 2007

A survey to be released today indicates that...about one-third of people caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease felt "more religious" because of the experience. The study, which surveyed 650 adults nationwide, was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

The survey found that 36% of respondents, who identified themselves as religious or nonreligious, said they felt "more religious." This feeling was more pronounced among African American respondents, with 48% saying that's how they felt.

More than 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative illness characterized by memory loss and disorientation, among other symptoms. Alzheimer's disease, more common in the elderly, worsens over roughly a 10-year period and is fatal.

There is no cure, and only "modestly successful" treatments exist, said Dr. Jeffrey L. Cummings, founder and director of the UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Center.

About 20 million Americans are caring for someone with Alzheimer's, according to the foundation. Most of the caregivers are family members, spouses or adult children.

Because caregivers bear heavy burdens — for example, the frustration of patients who frequently do not remember that they don't remember — they may die younger and can lapse into substance abuse and depression, Cummings said.

"It's been called, the '36-hour day,' " Cummings said. "Because there is no minute in which the caregiver can afford not to be vigilant over the patient, and that makes for a very trying kind of challenge."

Lemuel Chavis, a former Los Angeles elementary school principal, used to be upbeat, his intelligence obvious, his wife said. Married nearly 12 years ago — it's his third marriage and her first — they enjoyed taking short trips to San Diego or Palm Springs. Sometimes they went to the beach.

Many evenings, she said, he would read poetry to her, including "If" by Rudyard Kipling and "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes. But still, a "tough guy," he rarely cried.

Now, Chavis said, she sees her husband reduced to tears a couple times a week, complaining of the "splitting" in his head or his inability to do something. Like caregivers for Alzheimer's patients all over, she watches helplessly. And so she pushed herself closer to God.

"Who would I turn to?" she said. "I've tried talking to my friends, I've tried having a cocktail or two, I've tried … thinking about other things…. And I know it's going to get worse."

The experience, Chavis said, has taught her to trust in God's ways. She recalled moments of prayer: "I would say, 'You made him, you made the universe, you have to help me. You know the answers, I don't.' "

Peter Hill, a psychology professor at the Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University in La Mirada, said that for some people, facing a loved one with a terminal illness is what makes them aware of their own mortality. The experience causes them to search for meaning beyond themselves, for "a sense of transcendence," he said.

Sometimes spirituality can help caregivers deal with the dissonance between the person the caregiver once knew and the person who is before them, said Glen Milstein, an assistant professor of psychology at City College of New York.

"The real bottom line to all of this is that care-giving for persons with chronic illnesses is hard," Milstein said. "So you're going to use everything that will help you cope. What is it to mourn a living person? What is the ritual of mourning a living person? Where else but religion would the human go?"

In the United States, there are more than 260,000 religious communities — synagogues, parishes, mosques and other centers of worship — and about 80% of Americans affiliate themselves with a religious institution, Milstein said.

Chavis said she has found comfort and strength in her religious community, its prayers and hymns, particularly the song "The Battle Is Not Mine, It's the Lord's."

According to the Alzheimer's Foundation, the disease affects nearly 50% of those over age 85. By 2050, almost 16 million Americans are expected to have it.

"When it gets down to illness and you are facing the ultimate realities, you could have all the science in the world," said Kowalewski, the St. James rector. "But you're really facing humanity. There's an old saying, 'there's no atheists in the foxholes,' and it's sort of like that."

Resources for caregivers: Alzheimer's Assn., http://www.alz.org , and Alzheimer's Foundation of America, http://www.alzfdn.org

Labels: Alzheimer's, caregivers, God, religiosity, spirituality, Tami Abdollah